GRANDAD  DID  NOT DESERVE TO DIE LIKE THAT

 By Nina Page

 

George Alfred James Rider; A soldier who fought for his country and lived to tell the tale.

 Married his beloved Eileen and treated her like a princess, serenading her with songs everyday and doted on his daughter Christine for whom he’d do anything in the world to protect from harm.

A proud grandfather of four whose moustache bristled against their faces and who let them tickle his feet to wake him up when they slept over at 40 Warren Wood Road.

A hard worker who adored his job on the railway after the war, he moved on later in life to work at All Saints’ hospital Chatham.  Eager to help others out he and his co workers were more than happy to dispose of the waste materials they were asked to clear one day.

Breaking up and throwing  it into the skip he thought no more of it until he became unwell some years later. Which was when he found out that once asbestos fibres are broken they become fatal.

The caring man that he was, his only concern as he deteriorated was not for his own fading health. Remembering it had been a warm summer and many windows were open he worried that he had condemned mothers and babies in the hospital that day to the same fate.

A brave fighter who fought till the end, leaving behind a wife who died a fragile baby bird of person that never really quite got over losing the man she adored that cold February night.

A daughter who endured trips to court for compensation but for whom the only reward would be her dad back.

Grandchildren he didn’t get to see grow up and achieve goals.

And missed out on seeing great grandchildren who he would have adored and that never got to know just what a great man Jim Rider was.

Asbestos might have been a living for some but for others it didn’t give them a life to live.

GIRL FROM THE NECK DOWN COLUMN - MEDWAY MESSENGER