John McNeish McDevitt Tribute

Pops and few cronies from work were going fishing, With a space left he asked if i'd like to go. Off we went past Pitlochry up a side street into the middle of nowhere, here we are said Pops, wheres the loch i thought as all around were hills.

Here said Pops get this on your back and proceeded to laden my 15yr old frame with what must have been the heaviest rucksack we had with us,Follow me , 2miles of hill walking later , we're here he said , Out of breath i sat down, no time for that he said lets get fishin while its still light ,

35 fish between us over night , we had a laugh, hiding from the gillie . early morning we headed home, me barred from going again.

thanx for that memory Dad , i will cherish it all my days .

love and miss you.

Roy

My old man was a naval man through and through. You could guarantee that a Boating / yachting magazine could always be found beside his chair. he would longingly look at the boats for sale. I always thought that he was just waiting to retire to spend some of his well earned cash on a boat to sail on Loch Lomond.

On retirement he bought a caravan on Dunnoon overlooking the river Clyde but didn't, buy the boat. He then became ill and died never having gone back to sea until his remains were scattered by the Navy on the Clyde.

I would have loved to sail with my old man as it is something that I have always been keen to do. But with busy lives it has been an aspiration which has been all too easy to put off.

This is a regret I don't intend to repeat. I will make time to sail and enjoy this experience with my kids. Since my dads death I have undertaken a number of sailing courses and am now qualified to sail dinghy's and Keelboats.

On my last course I recall the yacht was bobbing gently on the river Forth as there was very little wind. The silence was deafening and as the yacht slowly approached and passed a buoy I remember being amazed by two large grey seals who were resting on the buoy who gave us a casual glance as we slowly sailed by within feet of them. I thought my old man would have been well impressed. It was awesome.

With some sailing course in the bag and a couple more to do I have a fixed plan that will see me on the seas ( well rivers) with my own Keelboat by 2010.

Keith

i cant help but smile when i think of dads birthday...always a fight between us kids to see who would buy him the chocolate or the socks ,because when asked what he wanted for his birthday thats all he would come up with.! Dad was terribly difficult to buy a gift for but that was all our own doing ,because he was actually very happy with whatever we bought him.even so...imagine our dismay when he was diagnosed with diabetes OH NO! we couldn't ALL buy him socks...
joking aside we wish he was still here to buy anything at all
love and miss you always da'
margaret xxxx

i cant help but smile when i think of dads birthday...always a fight between us kids to see who would buy him the chocolate or the socks ,because when asked what he wanted for his birthday thats all he would come up with.! Dad was terribly difficult to buy a gift for but that was all our own doing ,because he was actually very happy with whatever we bought him.even so...imagine our dismay when he was diagnosed with diabetes OH NO! we couldn't ALL buy him socks...
joking aside we wish he was still here to buy anything at all
love and miss you always da'
margaret xxxx

Loving lasting memories of my dad at Christmastime,he loved to shop for the whole family usually starting in JULY!!!! but he specially loved to see all the kids opening their presents ! on the very rare occasion that mum and dad did not spend Christmas day with the grandkids then it was usually pointless for my dad! He loved to spoil us all when he could even though most years he got chocolate.....socks....or a cd in return.!He is sorely missed by us all at all times of the year but Christmas is not the same without him.