When our daughter Hannah, then aged 4, dropped the batteries from her Nintendo onto the floor of a BA747 to Miami and saw them roll away towards the back of the plane we didn’t think we would see them again. But when a little girl, a few rows back, adroitly fielded them we got a double bonus. We got the batteries back, and, much more significantly, we met Grace. An exchange of phone numbers at the baggage carousel, a playdate around the pool and we were friends with the whole family. Over the years we had the privilege to share many, many lovely times with Chris and the whole family. We had many great times together in Florida. They were endlessly welcoming at their lovely house in Gulfstream where Chris kept the garden immaculate. We sat in the car eating our sandwiches for much of one afternoon at the local beach, watching the rain come down and wondering what the difference was with a wet English day. We all went down to Key West and, on the way back, had dinner on the island of Islamorada, at Julia’s, and now our, favourite restaurant. And our kids still remember a visit to the Ft Lauderdale museum of science. Chris drove us down in an enormous brand new 4WD they had been upgraded to, fitted, to the kids’ delight, with every electronic instrument known to man. The SatNav got us the 30 miles down the museum faultlessly, but upon getting out of the car, and being deprived of any technology, we got lost in the car park 30 yards from the museum. Meeting up in England was likewise a delight, although the first time we met up was in the UK winter and we remember being surprised to see Julia wearing a long brown coat until we realised that we had never seen her in anything but shorts. Having shared many New Year’s Eves in the warm Florida sun, we had a great time doing more or less the exact opposite: ice skating at the Natural History Museum. Over all these years Chris was the same generous, kind and thoughtful man. He wanted nothing but the best for his family and couldn’t have been lovelier to us all, especially our two girls. And when Jonny saw him and spoke to him in the last few months he was the same: asking after us all, full of sound advice and looking forward to meeting up and doing things altogether. It was truly a privilege to know such a lovely man and we will have only the very fondest and very warmest memories of him and our times together. With love from the Haskels Sue, Jonny, Hannah and Sarah