If you would like a memory of Gary added here please contact Suzanne
From Suzanne “I have so many wonderful, treasured memories of Gary. We were blessed with 26 incredible years together. I was 15 and Gary was 18 when we met in October 1977 through my school friend Cheryl. We had some great times in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire where I grew up and where Gary had moved to from his home town of Barry, South Glamorgan. He came to Welwyn Garden City with his friend Brian with the intention of staying for a short time before going on to travel around Europe. However, their plans for Europe never materialised. Gary got a job working shifts as a Process Operator for I.C.I. and moved into a shared house owned by his friend Paul Green. At this time Gary taught himself to play guitar and wrote a number of songs, many of which he played one Sunday night in 1980 at the I.C.I. social club. I.C.I. was a great place to work and Gary made a lot of good friends there. Sadly however, the company moved most of the plant to North Yorkshire and, rather than be relocated, Gary took redundancy at about the same time that I moved to Norwich to study at UEA. So from October to Christmas 1982 we spent a short time apart. Gary moved back to Barry and we were living on opposite sides of the UK. Thanks to National Express coaches though and our determination to not be apart for long we survived the long distance relationship and moved in together in Norwich in January 1983, living in a shared student house. We had a tiny attic living room and a bedroom on the floor below. We were living on a very tight budget as we were both studying but we were extremely happy and made some very good friends in Norwich. We were so hard up we couldn’t afford a television license so instead of watching tv Gary dabbled in making jewellery to sell to students at UEA to bring in some extra money. I remember one night in our cosy attic room when I had a tight deadline to get an essay written in time, Gary stayed up all night with me to keep me company. Gary was making jewellery and I got the essay written and we saw the dawn in together. I adored that attic room. It had Laura Ashley wallpaper and we filled it with green plants and nick knacks that had special sentimental value to us as it was our first home together. Gary also taught me how to make earrings with our distinctive silver wire toppings. Our friends Steve and Sheila who lived nearby sold candles at a craft centre at Pleasure Wood Hills Theme Park in Lowestoft and suggested we sell our jewellery there too. This took off and we set up a jewellery unit, Rainbow Beads, making and selling earrings and necklaces, mainly from handmade Fimo beads which we baked on the premises in a tiny Belling oven. The craft centre was seasonal though so to make ends meet Gary got a job working in the Customer Services Department at Cambridge Nutrition in Norwich. Gary’s helpful nature was ideally suited to working in Customer Services and he was quickly promoted to manage the department. Gary’s salary meant we could afford to buy our first home together in Lowestoft. It was a small two bedroomed terraced house. Gary discovered a talent for DIY and put together a fitted kitchen for us using 4 by 4 wood and ready made doors. He also laid parquet flooring throughout the living room and dining room. Our friends from the craft centre, potters Giles and Carol Catlin, lived a few streets away from us in Lowestoft. They and our friend from Norwich, Gary Fellingham were later to be our witnesses when we got married in 1989 after having moved to Market Harborough, Leicestershire due to Gary’s promotion to Warehouse Manager with Cambridge Nutrition, based at Corby. Our happiest occasion was when our daughter Megan was born in 1992. We’d gone to the hospital on a dark, stormy Sunday night when I went into labour. The hospital staff told Gary to go home and I was given a bed on the maternity ward for the night. I wouldn’t let Gary go home though as I couldn’t bear to be parted from him, so he spent a very uncomfortable few hours in the waiting room in the middle of the night until we were finally allowed to be together in the maternity suite and Megan was born at 1 pm. Gary was a wonderful birth partner, appearing calm through the whole process; massaging my back for me whilst we listened to Clannad on a little portable cassette player we had taken to the hospital with us. It was a magical experience that I hope I’ll never forget. We were very proud parents and shared a very happy family life together until my world fell apart in December 2003. I’ll never get over losing Gary. He was the best husband and father to our daughter I could ever have wished for. He brought so much happiness, joy, laughter and music into my life. I cherish the time we spent together and value every second. I just wish we could have had more time – I wish he could be alive today to see the beautiful, talented woman his daughter has become and to meet her partner Josh, who Gary would have had so much in common with – a love of music, computers and Star Wars! Every happy occasion now is also a sad occasion because Gary isn’t here to share it with us – life is immeasurably poorer because he isn’t here with us and I miss him constantly.”