Thank you so much for your friendship and your kindness, Ian. I will never forget you.

With love from Pat.

What a great fellow!  I got to know Ian when we were "partners in eels" at Teddington Lock.  As part of a citizen science project, with London Zoo, and adopted by HUG, we went to the trap on Tuesday mornings, donned life jackets, traversed the locks and then counted and measured any elvers (baby eels) in the trap.

At the end of the season there was a get together of London eel volunteers at a pub in Brentford where we sang and performed songs, with words adapted by us, to an eel theme.

A sad loss to so many I am sure.

I’d talked with Ian a few times at Maker labs and Ham fair but this July Ian had helped me by fixing my sewing machine.  This meant I went to his house and we chatted about how he’d made a lovely home and he said how much he loved living in that spot overlooking the greenery.  I was struck by his unconditional kindness (you could see this in his eyes) and I asked if he’d like me to make him a cushion to say thank you for the exceptional job he had done and asked what material he’d like.  He said he liked birds, especially pigeons.  Last week I was looking through my material to start the cushion when I heard the news.  Sorry Ian that I didn’t make your cushion in time and that you didn’t know how grateful I was that people like you are in the world.

Thank you.  Andrea