Henry’s Speech

Steve, or uncle Steve as I knew him, was without a doubt the most interesting person I knew. To be honest though, I’ve realised that I hardly knew him at all. I mean that in a positive way though because as I look around this room I’m overwhelmed by the number of people Steve reached throughout his life… and gorillas… and wolves…

Young and old, from near and far away, Steve was a man with many friends: true friends that valued him. He experienced so much in his time and luckily he took many of you with him on one journey or another.

My family and I are very much looking forward to hearing all of the outrageous funny and crazy stories that I’m sure many of you have to tell. It is a great testament to the man to see you all here today.

Our family has been immensely touched by the outpouring of love from all of his friends these past few weeks. The joy that he has brought to so many people is clear to see, so thank you all for coming.

My mum’s brother Steve was childhood friends with my dad over fifty years ago and that was before my mum and dad had even met. Consequently, he has always been an extremely close member of our family. At every family gathering he and my parents always seemed more like three great friends rather than family to me. He lit up the room when he arrived and it was always sad to see him leave. That friendship that he had with my parents was passed down to me and my brothers and Steve was always a good friend to all of us.

Our family always knew uncle Steve as an eccentric guy – you never really knew what you were going to get. The famous hazard unit van would roll up, and the big guy with his tie-dye t-shirt, head scarf, or snood, would jump out with a big grin on his face and a story to tell. Was he coming to invite us to his shed warming party? Incidentally this was the dress code for the shed warming party – black-tie and wellies. Did he have that annoying puzzle with him where you had to pick up twenty nails with the one nail? Or was he bringing an eight year old me a video tape from his friend in Poland with the latest taped episode of the Simpsons on it?

Steve introduced me to the Simpsons with that tape and now every time I see the episode with the Itchy and Scratchy sketch where Itchy nails Scratchy’s feet to the escalator and Scratchy eventually gets skinned alive, I think of uncle Steve.

Family holidays with him at the converted barn in Northumberland are some of my fondest memories. Keen to show us the beautiful countryside he taught my brother and I that you don’t need a frizby to entertain you as long as you have a dried-out run-over frog to throw at each other. When you are a bored ten year old Steve provides.

More recently my wife and I had the absolute pleasure of being given the grand tour of the Russian garden by Steve; a garden that he was so passionate about. A beautiful space in north London that we learnt Steve was absolutely instrumental in building. Steve was met by everyone that works there with huge hugs and big smiles, but even on that day, a year since he had been there, he was poking the trimmed back roses with his walking stick and giving the guys a hard time for cutting them too low. Old habits die hard as they say.

Gardens and the outdoors really were Steve’s passion and he was extremely talented at what he did.

These are just a few of my personal memories of Uncle Steve, the one thing that I took from him that I will always keep with me is his ability to look at life from a different perspective. He always questioned life and he never settled for the status quo. He taught us that you don’t have to live a conventional life to be happy and to bring joy to others – you can be you. Just make sure that you live life with an open mind, an open heart, and an open door, as long as you remember to do that your life will never be boring. I will always live my life that way because of you.

Thank you Steve, we love you.