Hi everyone. Sorry it has taken so long for me to get back to you all. But I know you will understand.
So here we go on the final days of my beautiful brother's life but I am going to have to do this in stages as there is so much to write and I am still too raw to do it all in one go.
There was an awful lot of upset connected to the organising of his fundraising evening caused by too many cooks spoiling the broth and a few people fighting for one-up-manship. You know the sort - "hey look at me, I'm such a wonderful person giving up my free time for such a worthy cause" type of person when in fact they were simply jumping on the bandwagon. What they were actually doing was 'nothing' and while doing that they were being very nasty about the people who were flogging themselves silly trying to get things in place. Silly me told them to stop causing trouble and to back off from calling mine and Gordy's friends who we had known for 30 years or more - in fact Gordy was engaged to one of them when they were in their early 20's - and you know what one of the little witches did? Telephoned Gordy and told him a pack of lies saying that she had been shunned from helping on the fundraiser (the opposite was in fact the case) and that I had told her to stay away and never contact Gordy again! How someone could be so evil that they would try and cause a rift between a dieing man and his sister is totally beyond my comprehension but she did. The poor man was so upset but I managed to smooth things over with him. I will never forgive her.
Gordy was getting very poorly and the Friday before the fundraiser was held his legs were giving him a great deal of pain and started weeping. I knew then that we had very little time left with him but he still refused to give in. He went out and bought some lovely keepsakes for the people organising the fundraiser which I am sure they will cherish forever. On the Sunday I helped him to write the gift tags. Well actually he insisted on writing them himself which took absolutely ages as I had to spell most of the names and some of the words for him very slowly. His mind was starting to go and it was so hard to keep smiling and stop myself from crying. We got the gifts wrapped and ready and then he went out to the fliks!
The evening of the fundraiser dawned - Monday 5th March 2012. Gordy went to the hospital with Dougy and Paul to see his consultant. Mr Wadd asked him if he was ready to go in and Gordy said he was but there was no place available in Teesside Hospice and Gordy refused to go back into the hospital. He came home and tried to rest so he had some energy for the evening. One of the organisers had arranged for a stretch limo to take us to the venue. The poor chauffeur was kept waiting for over half an hour as Gordy had not written the 'thank you' cards and insisted on doing it himself which took as much time as writing the gift tags. He was really struggling and it broke my heart watching him. We eventually left at 7.15 pm.
We got to the venue and there was a whole crowd of people outside waiting to welcome him. I have never felt so overwhelmed in my life. A photographer had offered his services free for the evening and started snapping away immediately. What a round of applause my brother received when he got out of the limo. If you didn't know what was going on you would have thought he was royalty or a famous celebrity. The evening was amazing. The donations for raffle prizes ranged from designer perfume to autographed goods, to beauty hampers, to electrical goods. People were having legs waxed, heads shaved and our Dougy had his bum waxed and raised over £300 just from this. But I have to say that watching my brother get his backside waxed by his step-daughter was wrong on so many levels I really don't know where to start. Thankfully he was wearing a thong so the crown jewels were covered by a furry elephant's head. He will be forever known as 'Nellie' from now on! I will never be able to put into words how grateful I am to everyone concerned with the event. All in all it was an evening never to be forgotten and they raised £4,300 which will be split between Gordy's daughter Alex and her son, Zain. If Gordy had let these wonderful people organise the fundraiser earlier he would have been able to put the proceeds to good use himself but he was so stubborn at the beginning of his illness and had refused to go along with the idea.
Our Gordy was amazingly strong and managed to stay the distance even though we knew he was in extreme pain and discomfort. We left at midnight and when we got home he could hardly move. He tried to eat some chicken and fruit but his mouth was so sore from mouth ulcers he just couldn't. He did manage to drink some banana complan and then he went off to bed. That was the last time we saw Gordy as the man we knew and loved because the next day the cancer really took hold of him.
