Peter Flood (2 May 1934 - 17 Jul 2020)

Peter was born on the 2nd May 1934 and was the eldest son of James and Lilian Flood. He grew up in Chatham with his brothers Allan and Colin and his sister Jean. Dad and Allan as children were evacuated during the war to Wales and typical of two young boys soon got into trouble, they discovered some tomatoes growing in a neighbours garden. They had never seen tomatoes growing before and decided to have a feast on the green tomatoes, I cant imagine how they must have tasted, their mum soon brought them back home again. As the eldest he always assumed the duty of looking after his younger siblings and his own family and especially his two grandsons Jamie and Marcus who had a very special bond with their grandad. This sense of duty to look after his family remained with him throughout his life.

After leaving school he went to work for Dove, Phillips & Pett Ltd makers of lemonade as a drivers mate. He then joined the army to do his national service in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) where he passed his HGV test driving heavy goods lorries which was to then become his life time career. During his national service he travel around the world serving in Germany and visiting many countries Japan, Hong Kong, to name a few and served in the Korean War. However his experience in the East left its mark on him as far as food goes. Chinese take away was an absolute No Go in our house growing up, and he never succumbed to ever even try one throughout his entire life, we always had to stop off and get him fish and chips . He remained in the army for several months after his national service ended as he would not fly home, apparently one of their planes had crashed a few days earlier and he would not get on a flight home, so he spent months returning by sea. His fear of flying remained with him his entire life he was only ever persuaded to fly once to Ireland to visit his life long friends Owen & Barbara.
On returning to England Dad went back to work for Dove,Phillips & Pett Ltd but this time as a lorry driver. He spent most of his spare time repairing and rebuilding motorbikes. When his brother Allan returned from national service dad went straight out and brought him a motorbike so that could join his brothers on the motor bike scene. During this period he was now working for the drinks company Babysham driving all over the country.
On the 17th September 1960 Peter married Maureen Chevis at All Saints Church Birling and moved to Rock Avenue in Gillingham where his daughters Karen and Pauline where born. It was during this time that his Sister Jean came to live with us before moving to America. During this time dad was a contract driver working for long haulage companies and then the construction firm Wimpy. He was still very much into his motor bikes, this house had a cellar and dad spent hours in the cellar rebuilding a motorbike and then its was finally finished the big day arrived to take it for a test drive. However dad had not quite thought this through the bike went down the cellar in bits, but now it was complete he could not get it out of the cellar so had to take it all apart again to get it out, we never let him forget this. Nor will we ever forget that cellar, dad had big size 12 feet and the cellar steps very steep and narrow and this was to become a regular occurrence, dad would start to go down the steps then you would hear a loud thump he'd slipped on the steps again and would be bouncing down them on his behind.
In 1970 we moved to a small bungalow in Walderslade and, yet again dads feet were to work against him, whilst we lived here being a small bungalow storage was a problem so he kept lots of stuff in the loft and was always going up there. However he managed over the years to put his foot through nearly every single ceiling in the house so all of our ceilings had patches on them. It became quite a regular thing to come home from school and there would be a big hole in the living room ceiling. Dad was also very keen on DIY and decided to aertex the dining room ceiling probably to cover up all the patches in the ceiling, so Mum took us out for the day to Southend On Sea so we didn't get in the way. Now they had agreed to have a nice soft swirl pattern, well dad had decided to get a bit creative and went ahead with a different pattern what can only be described as a chequer board design. When we arrived back home he was very keen to show off his handy work, I still remember this very clearly mum just stood there staring up at his handy work and was speechless and Pauline and I were struggle not to laugh, poor mum had to live with that ceiling for years.
It was here that dad was now into cars which were more practical and was always buying and fixing up cars to sell. During this time dad was working for Key Terrain in Aylesford as a forklift driver doing shift work and it was during the 3 day week that hit all across the country back in the 1970's. Our childhood here was a happy one dad got very into banger racing and all through the summer months we would travel around Kent at the weekends to watch them race and that's when we got a caravan. We would take the caravan to the races and that way we could have our lunch and get a cup of tea, came in handy too when the weather was not so good. This was also the start of our family holidays away in the caravan going to Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Norfolk.
Dad then in 1979 went to work for McNicholas Engineering as a HI AB grab driver. Whilst driving one day near Larkfield lakes a duck flew into his windscreen so dad pulled over picked up the duck and thought well that's Sunday dinner taken care of and puts the duck on the passenger seat. A mile or so later the duck came too it had only been stunned, it then proceeded to fly around the cab of the lorry and start to attack dad, so he had to stop again and get it out of the cab. Dads happiest years had been working for McNicholas where he stayed for 23 years until his retirement at the age of 68. Even though dad had been retired for several years he is still remembered as their best grab driver by those worked with him. Dad was a man of few words but get him on the subject of McNicholas and all his work colleagues he'd be chatting away for hours. This was always the topic of conversation on his visits with his son in law Chris as they had both worked there.

In January 1983 we all moved to Ryarsh so that Mum could be close to her family living in Birling and this was to become home for 37 years. Dads DIY skills had improved a great deal by now and he was to go on and build a beautiful ingle nook fireplace and carve the fire surround in the dinning room he had always been very good at carpentry. Sadly Mum died in December 2002 about 6 months after dad retired. Dad amazed us how well he coped doing the house work, shopping and cooking he was a great believer in 3 square meals a day. He was also a good cook and would bake us cakes when we were growing up, he taught me how to make apple pies and of course the best way to make the custard to go with them. He was extremely independent did not like us helping him unless it was absolutely necessary, if we tried to do anything around the house he would moan at us your here to see me not do my housework that kind of thing. The one thing he did surprise us all with was how well he took to gardening, Mum had always been the gardener.

He never lost his passion for motorbikes and cars and whenever he was in the company of his son-law John and his grandsons Jamie and Marcus they would be talking cars with dad.

To sum dad up he was an mans man and was not one for showing his emotions in public. He never stopped being our dad, as strange as that might sound the roles never reversed with age. He was able to deal with anything that came his way and was incredibly strong both physically and mentally. He made a full recover from bladder and prostrate cancer, a tumour on his jaw, hip replacement and an aneurism on his spleen which had to be removed. He spent 28 days in hospital 21 of which was in the high dependency unit, when I picked him up from hospital he couldn't wait to get out and get home. I was absolutely astounded after all he had been through there was no wheelchair exit for him, he took off along the corridor with me running behind struggling to keep up. They gave us strict instructions he needed to take it easy when he got home. So Pauline and I went over at the weekend to do his housework, remember he is to take it easy, when we got there he had got up early and done it all before we got there. The game was up when we spotted the hoover pipe he forgot to put it away.

His younger brother Colin lived on his own and sadly in 2018 was diagnosed with kidney cancer, as soon as dad knew he told Colin pack your things you are coming to live with me and at the age of 83 dad nursed him to the end. His strong sense of duty as the eldest to look after his family coming to the fore again.,

But sit my dad down in front of the telly to watch a Laurel & Hardy film or a Tom & Jerry cartoon and he was a big kid again. He'd seen these films many times during his life time but found them just as funny as the first time he ever watched them. Many a time you could hear him laughing out loud and we go dashing in to see what we were missing and he'd be watching looney tunes cartoons. Sorry dad you probably didn't want people to know this!

Dad we miss you so much but you will always be with us in our hearts and forever in our thoughts always.

Karen, Pauline, Chris, John, Jamie and Marcus. xx

The Broken Chain

We little knew that morning that God was going to call your name
In Life we loved you dearly, in death we do the same.
It broke our hearts to lose you, you did not go alone
For part of us went with you, the day God called you home
You left us peaceful memories, your love is still our guide,
And though we cannot see you, you are always at our side
Our family chain is broken, and nothing seems the same,
But as God calls us one by one, the chain will link again.

If Tears Could Build A Stairway

If tears could build a stairway
And memories were a lane
We would walk right up to heaven
And bring you back again
No Farwell words were spoken
No time to say goodbye
You were gone before we knew it
And only God knows why
Our hearts still ache in sadness
And secret tears will flow
What it meant to lose you
No one will ever know
But now we know you want us
To mourn for you no more
To remember all the happy times
Life still has much more in store
Since you'll never be forgotten
We pledge to say today
A hallowed place within our hearts
Is where you'll always stay