Dee Dee

I have just realised after some serious sorting that Dee Dee, my Grandad was without evening knowing it, a huge inspiration to me. I have just found a cardboard tube from 5th January 2006 which I have kept. It has been with me throughout at least 4 house moves.

Written on an orange piece of paper it says:

‘Rebecca,

Hope that you can make use of some of these. They seem too good to put out in the re-cycling bin!!!

Lots of love from Dee Dee and Grandma’

That has been my ethos to this day. I have recently been collecting cardboard tubes without a lot of reason, apart from I like them. When I found the first edition again, I was so happy and it all seemed to make more sense.

I used to love receiving packages or letters from Dee Dee as they were so meticulously created. There would be no room for error; always return to sender information. He also had millions of screws, nails and the like in his garage and kept them all in jars which were labelled. Somehow he had made something not initially interesting to me, fascinating by the order and sheer variety. By categorising and collecting different types, it somehow made them seem worth more like they were precious.