John loved to garden and loved a nicely cut lawn; although this was not possible for him later in life so I did my best to take over.  I did a bit of research to improve the lawn as it had become full of moss after John was unable to care for it.  She scarified the lawn to within an inch of its life followed by re-seeding.  John was horrified and complained for weeks about the lost lawn that was full of big muddy patches. He told Yvonne that she should have raked with care.  He conceded that she had done a good job when the lawn grew back much better and then made out it was his good idea. 


When John was well and spent a lot of time doing the garden he would often burn the garden waste in a burn bin.  He was a busy man and didn't have time to mess about getting the fire going so he decided to get something flammable from the garage to get it going.  Needless to say he nearly blew himself up but luckily the only damage was that it took his eyebrows off and singed the front of his hair.  I was not happy because it blew up my potting shed.  Thankfully, the fire did quickly die down but black smoke continued to bellow all around him and down the street.  

John just sat on a garden chair reading a car manual while the fire continued to burn and I was going mad at him while quickly trying to get the washing off the line and close the windows and doors.  John later told how he was sat there and could hear rustling among the brambles on the adjacent land and the next thing he knew a man jumped over the fence and appeared through the smoke.  He was shouting "John, John, are you ok?" When asking John what his response was to this man he said I just said "oh hello".  John never said but we imagine he gave the man an easier way to exit the garden. I asked who the man was but John didn't know his name only that he was a fireman who lived on the street behind us.  

People have always asked after John or said hello to us both by name in the street.  Some we knew well and others not so well.  Some I didn't know at all but they knew John from speaking to him as they passed him working on cars in his garage over the years and often asked for advice about their car.  John always offered his time to take a look at their car for them even if they were total strangers.  

Our local garage/service station owner, which is across the road from our own garage, knew John well and was very sorry to hear of his passing.  He said that he will always remember John and seeing him tinkering in the garage at weekends.  He said he had a lot of admiration for John.