Dear Jude,
It’s hard to believe I’ve known your Dad for the best part of 30 years, having met him at University. There have been so many wonderful memories along the way, and the thing about your Dad was that he always made life so amazingly good for everyone around him. Whenever you spoke to him he made you smile and laugh, and he always went through life having a wonderful positive impact on people. He was a pleasure to be around, an amazing friend. I know he was a fantastic Dad and husband, and generally in recent years he was missing you and Simone whenever we caught up, as I live in Australia.
At University, when Chris and I met we were part a wide group of people who became unusually close mates, and those friendships were always going to last, and since then every time we caught up it was always a matter of being as good mates as ever.
He became close friends with my wife, Karen, as well as Karen’s parents who he met a fair bit when he visited Sydney which he did pretty frequently when he was living in Singapore.
Recently both my in-laws had serious stays in hospital, and guess what? Both times presents arrived from Chris completely unexpected. This was typical of Chris, he really was a guy who was so busy himself but always made time for other people.
We had some great times with Nick Tudor and myself on your Dad’s many visits. It was ‘Tudes’ house where Chris had his Sydney ‘wine cellar’ whilst living in ‘Singers’ as he called it…
There were so many good stories and memories featuring your Dad. A few personal ones for me and Karen ;
By chance, I happened to be ‘stuck’ with Chris in Bologna Italy for 5 days in 2010 when a volcano erupted and grounded all flights around Europe for a week. Chris had flown out from UK that morning for a meeting with Ferrari (who else?) and didn’t even have an overnight bag. We had a great time, plenty of ‘almond juice’ over many nights and Chris managed to get on the wrong train home, ending up in a ski resort in the Italian alps.
Karen and I have very fond memories of Chris and Simone visiting us, and one year also his parents (your grandparents) visited our house in Sydney for Christmas Day one year, leading to a very strange game of coights amongst other things. I feel very lucky to have enjoyed the Elsmore’s family company, and I remember thinking what a great time we all had.
Jude your Dad was an amazing guy. He managed to fit so much into his all too short life, it is staggering. He was a highly successful man, a boy from Stoke who did so well based on hard work and doing the right thing. I just feel lucky to have spent some fantastic times with him.
All our love and thoughts to you, your Mum and Chris’ family from Ju, Karen, Alex and Freya x