On this day, five years ago, we said goodbye to daddy. He wanted to go, the girls could look after ma and he didn& #39;t fancy hanging around with tubes stuck in him.

He went like he wanted, quickly and without fuss, much to the dismay of my uncle, who bless him, wanted a kilometre long procession led by an army contingent and band, followed by his colleagues in Hoogly Docking, GEC and Nicco Park, the CD block residents and then family.

I remember one of my aunts remembering him as we were sitting around that evening and, sniffing to herself, saying, & #39;your father, great man, engineer, brigadier, Nobel Prize winner,& #39; and thinking how daddy would have laughed his head off if he had heard her.

We remembered him by drinking his whisky, poring through all his albums and organizing a farewell that he would have liked, all his friends, the music of the fifties and sixties and a lot of food.

Five years on, he still makes life easier for us. Whenever we kids are stuck on an issue, it& #39;s WWDD time, What Would Daddy Do!
The Arucaria Pine still stands straight daddy. And the house is freshly painted. You would approve.