In Memory of my Dad on his 60th Birthday

Good morning my dears, 

Yesterday would've been my Dad's 60th birthday.

Parents:
William Harold Smith 

b. August 4th, 1924 d. 1999

married on December 12th to 

Veronika Ortrud Heier

b. December 27th, 1938 d. 2010

My Dad as a toddler and his Uncle Winifred, who tragically passed away in the late 1950s/ early 1960s in an automobile accident. 

My Dad and Aunt Diana (underlined) in the newspaper.

My Dad used to DJ on the weekends to pay for new records and music. 

My dad:
Sven Marten Manfred Smith

b. September 16th, 1958 d. May 21st, 2013
Hamm, Germany

married on August 10th, 1985

Julie Ann Bird

- private as still alive- 

My Mum and Dad in the mid 1980's. 

My Grandpa Smith was in the British Army, so my dad spent most of his childhood travelling and living in Europe and Africa. He attended Ellis Robins, an all boys high school, and Salisbury Polytechnic, for college. He also joined the Rhodesian Air Force in 1978.

40th Anniversary since Rhodesian Air Force 

 My Dad is in on bended knee, far left. My Uncle Buffy, who married my Aunt Diana is also pictured. 

Our parents welcomed me, in 1986 and my little sister, in 1990.

Our family at my sisters christening in 1990. 

Kiki and Gigi

 

After working for Tron Air, my Dad and several partners started Inter Avionics, an international aviation/electrical engineering business, in South Africa, North America, Europe, and Australia. This meant that my sister and me travelled a lot during our childhoods too. He worked at the company for almost 25 years before passing. 

My Dad and me in South Africa, 2000. 

My Dad was a hobbyist. When he pursued a hobby he would go overboard, and overthink, and overbuy, to pursue the hobby. For example, one year he decided he was going to plant a garden. He researched about the types of beds, the types of soil, how to start composting (he made his own composter), he created rows and rows of gardens and kept an exact record of plantings on a birds eye view map. He is what young'uns today would call "extra".

My Dad and me Easter, 2012

Sadly, eight weeks after his mother's passing he found out he had stage I pancreatic cancer. Although smaller that the size of a pea, the cancer was inoperable because it was so close to major arteries, so for two-and-a-half years he fought, and I did my best to take him to the hospital, to his chemo and radiation, to lunch, and to get his prescriptions, until his passing a week before my 27th birthday. 

Forever in my memory.

Kiki Nakita

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