Thread by @ItsAlKitching

@MooseAllain When I was growing up, from very early on, in fact the first day we moved into our new house when I was 6, we knew Bert. Bert had introduced himself as we were unpacking on our first day, said hello to my Mum and Dad and patted our dog Honey (Golden Retriever). He was EVER SO old

@MooseAllain In fact, I discovered later, twenty odd years later when my Mum wrote his obituary for the local paper, that he was born in 1896. That dates it in itself, Mom being creative and literary and interested enough to write an article for the local rag. I cannot imagine that now.

@MooseAllain Bert kind of befriended us, and we him. He drove a little Ford Anglia. He and his wife were lovely. When Nelly died Mum would check on him and Dad would go and chat to him and we'd pop by with Honey - he became part of our lives. He lived a couple of hundred yards up the street.

@MooseAllain His house was a messy marvel, full of victoriana and edwardian bits and bobs; his garden was a bird's paradise. Nests EVERYWHERE.

@MooseAllain Four years or so after we moved in, Dad suffered a series of cardiac events and had to retire. One of the changes we had to make was Honey. It just didn't work having a big lugubrious hound in the house and Bert wanted the company so she sort of went on a long term holiday.

@MooseAllain It was strange her being just up the road but it worked. Bert loved her and Dad recovered but she stayed there. Bert loved us for that gesture, and he loved my Dad all the more.

@MooseAllain He told him tales about his own Dad, about his uncle the circus strongman. (Seriously, I’ve see the photo. Leopard skin caveman outfit, Edwardian moustache, speherical-weight-dumbbells.) Volunteering as an ARP. And about the swimming. Bert was a champion swimmer.

@MooseAllain Even into his 90s he swam. He was half porpoise. Extraordinary. Had it not been for the the Great War he would have gone to the 1916 Olympics. He was genuinely amazing. Story was he introduced the crawl to our part of the world. The local baths used to run a cup in his name.

@MooseAllain All the more amazing was that he did all this with a hole in the heart. He was refused service and had to work rather than go to the front.

@MooseAllain Shamefully, one day, sat in a pub in Nottingham, as a young man having a quiet drink, 18, 19 years old, he was aproached by a glamorous woman who smiled at him and handed him a white feather. Imagine that. Such cruelty.

@MooseAllain Bert and Dad spent a lot of time together. Bert helped us out after Dad had to retire early, and that was tough, pride etc. but it happens. But it was reciprocal...Dad helped with lifts and shopping and just general support.

@MooseAllain One of the things he helped him with as Bert became more and more infirm was getting him to the polling station on EVERY election, national or local. 7am, Dad and Bert would turn up.

@MooseAllain Dad’d come home for breakfast, say, "we've exercised our franchise" and that was that. Mum would walk over in the evening after tea. It was just the way it worked out.

When Dad died it pretty much broke Bert.

@MooseAllain Oh dear. I’ll try and keep this on message. Elderly neighbours. Right.

@MooseAllain I was in my early 20s then and home on a long unemployed streak. It was the 80s. It was the East Midlands. Anyway. I decided I'd take over. Bert was getting increasingly frail. But, he still needed to vote. So I stepped up.

@MooseAllain A couple of locals and we got the routine sorted. I'd pick him up in my Mum's fiesta, and we'd very gently go up the road to the primary school where the polling station was. He was using a stick by then (but still a fierce swimmer).

@MooseAllain I think about this every time I vote...we'd go in and he’d hang on to me as we tottered along up to the clerk’s desk. They knew him of course, and we’d turn around and they’d allow me to stand there in the booth while he voted.

@MooseAllain Then he’d drop his paper in the ballot box and wave everyone a cheery adieu.

@MooseAllain /Fin