Nick Speech

Nick was nineteen when he joined the army, something he reminded me of frequently. The best years of his life he called them. In fact sometimes I wonder if the rest of his life even counted.

 The only link I have left are the stories he told me, and the objects he left behind.

Nick loved his saxophone, he said that it calmed him down I remember every time I went round his house, he was either playing or cleaning it.

unless of course he was taking his medication, Nick's skin really let him down, I don't remember a time that I visited when he didn't have cream all over his face.

I remember playing monopoly with Nick, I always won. Maybe he let me, but he still loved it.

Crosswords, he loved crosswords.

Or if he could find anyone to play with, he would always get the dominoes out.

There are some family videos, although Nick hated being on camera. He would rather watch films, particularly films about the war, we all had to sit and watch them with him.

I know he prayed every day and told me he wasn't afraid of dying, because all of his young friends were waiting for him so he could show off his medals and share the old stories.

Sometimes, it felt like he was just waiting for time to pass, and many evenings I would go round to find him with a glass of his favourite wine, scanning the sea with his trusty binoculars for what, I don't know.

But if there is one thing that stands out about Nick, it was a teddy bear that his Dad gave him just before he went to war. He kept it on a shelf just next to his chair, he said it was all he had left to remember his dad by







Nick was a great guy. Always there for birthdays, Christmas, never really doing much though. Just kind of sat there, he would only ever talk about the war, how he had repaired the wing of a plane whilst being shot at as it was taking off. It's sad really, he never did get over the fact that he had lost his friends, as he got older he used to call me Tommy. Apparently it was his best friends name during the war and Nick had seen him killed right infront of him. After he had worked out that I wasn't Tommy, he would just sit in his chair for a while, completley silent. I never did used to like going to Nick's house, it seemed like a chore back then, but now he's gone... I miss him. I'll never forget you Nick, just as you never forgot your friends.


As the sun set on Nicks life, the shadow of his war years grew longer. He might have been my great grandad but in his heart, Nick was always a soldier. And I loved him for it.