Brian was my best friend, my partner, and teacher for twenty-one years. We made a great couple and didn’t have a cross word in all that time.

I met him when he came down to Pembrokeshire to help a colleague of mine with her weight lifting. She asked me to meet him as he was such a lovely man who had lost his wife a few years earlier. I had been divorced for about ten years and had not been out with a man in all that time. He picked me up and I took him to the Fishguard Bay hotel for dinner. At the end of the evening he took me home, we shook hands and I thought that was that. He came down several times after that and we met up on each occasion.

One day he phoned to ask if I would like to go with him to Spain, as he was going out to buy peppers for Birds Eye. It was in the school holidays so I thought- why not. That was the beginning of a beautiful loving friendship that took us around the world.

Italy was the country Brian loved. He spoke the language like a native. We visited the lakes, Venice, Verona, the Amalfi coast, Rome, Lucca
and Pisa, the heel of Italy, Sicily, to name but a few.

We both loved skiing which took us to Spain, Andorra, and of course Cervinia and Courmayeur in Italy, usually for Christmas. We went to Kefalonia to a veteran weightlifting competition, Istanbul to help me get over a cough (which it did), Brussels by Eurostar and Budapest
where I met his true friend Gabor who Brian helped with sales in Britain.

We had a very unusual holiday in Istanbul where Brian was offered three camels for me!! Luckily he said I was worth a lot more than that and I survived becoming the second wife to who knows who.

I retired a year early because Brian wanted to take me on a long journey to America. We flew to New York, went over to Ellis Island and he found several Hamills who had emigrated to America back in the day. We drove north from New York through Vermont and New Hampshire, Killington and Stowe. We stayed in a place called Grimsby before heading to Niagara Falls. I begged Brian to do a helicopter ride over the falls which he was petrified to do but we did it together of course. From there we flew down to Florida and met up with Dave and Martha (Brian and Dave had worked together in the food business). We continued on up through Savanna, up the Blue Ridge Mountains to Washington and, after a fantastic trip, we flew home.

Our next big adventure was to South Africa. We flew to Cape Town and hired a car to take us around the Garden Route. One of our stays was in a luxury tent complex by a lake. I took a bath with a hippopotamus swimming just by me. Needless to say we met up with some more of Brian’s friends, John Crook and his wife. We went up Table Mountain and crossed to Robin Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years.

Another fab holiday took us to Montreal where Brian’s mother’s family had emigrated. His uncle Vrej and aunt Alice were great people and their children Marise, John Jack and his wife Sossi were a fantastic and loving family. After celebrating the wedding of John Jack and Sossi’s son Kevork, we flew down to Calgary where again we hired a car and went to explore Canada. First stop was Banff then Lake Louise and on to Jasper. We hit snow on the way to Whistler on the Columbia glacier but travelled safely on to Vancouver. A visit to Vancouver Island was essential to have the famous afternoon tea.

The next holiday I will never forget was our trip to New Zealand. I could write a book about it. The highlights were bungee jumping, skinny dipping in the lake by Te Anau, dancing with the Maori, watching Brian do the haka and sand surfing at the top of North Island.

Our holiday on the west coast of America was also memorable. We drove from Seattle to San Francisco and met a lot of fantastic people on the way. The most memorable part of the trip was that Brian moved us up to first class for our flight home. My birthday present he said. Wow, what an experience!

Our last holiday together was to the heel of Italy He loved it and although his memory was going a bit we both had a fab time.

I have probably gone on for too long and in too much detail but it has helped me come to terms with my great loss. I write this with tears in my eyes as I realise it's over.

I said at the start that he was my teacher as he was so clever and intelligent.  I called him the font of all knowledge, not in a sarcastic way
but because he had a great knowledge on so many levels.

I loved him so much and will miss him for what’s left of my life.

Margaret