Uncle John

I'm not sure when John Stemp was born, but maybe 1932/33.



I don't know when that picture was taken and, although I was told several times that it is him, comparison with the next photo raises some doubts. From 1938/39 or thereabouts - John on the left, Stella (my Mum) on the right and baby Margaret on Clare, their mother's knee.



A few years later, John at the back, with Great Uncle Charlie, for whom I also hold special affection.



John on the left in 1972, with Olive, his wife, in the middle of the couch; the three great uncles, Jim, George and Charlie; and George's wife, Nell.



On the Norfolk Broads in 1982, with John second from the left, husband Jack with Aunty Margaret and Stella, second from the right. My brother, Richard and I are at the ends.



John came over to visit us in Warsaw in 2004.



He and I did quite a bit of travelling and sightseeing. When looking through the many photos I'd taken, he seemed especially pleased with my attempt to show him chatting up the ladies. In a motel beteen Kielce and Krakow:



In Krakow:



And in an Inn on the road south from Oświęcim.



John died yesterday, 26 January 2011. He is remembered.

I found that I had a sequence of pictures from Gdansk where he was walking away from me - click on the black surround first. Whilst I was going to present this in a way that would now have some metaphorical significance, I decided that he would have preferred me to think of him laughing at the suggestion that it be called: "Where did you say the toilet was?". I've therefore added back the final picture.