People Matter - Number One of an Occasional Series - Ray
Ray is a proud man.
A little shy at times, but happy to share recollections and anecdotes once he has warmed up, and often with a twinkle in his eye. He talked me through his collection of medals on my last visit, a mixed bag including one for service in the Suez Canal Zone and a few for local football competitions (nearly all runners up, he tells me with a smile on his face).
Even when he rather sadly remembered that his father, a local bus driver, only once came to see him play football, and then for just a few minutes during a cup final whilst on a turnaround between routes, he still manages to grin. In fact, he laughed out loud when he said that it was very likely that his father didn't even know that he was actually playing in the game that he watched.
Times were very different back then.
Like so many people of a similar age, growing up during the war seems to have given Ray a rather stoic outlook, something that has clearly helped him deal with the inevitable disappointments that life can rather cruelly inflict on us at times.
