Eulogy for Gerald Gareth Lucas Gerry was born on 9th April 1940, in the City of Bristol, to Ernest Herbert and Edith Victoria Lucas. He was the eldest of three boys, his siblings being Trevor and Paul. His Dad Ernest worked as an aircraft inspector and Mum Edith, who is now 93 years of age, ran a fancy goods shop; the UK equivalent of our Spanish Todo shop. Gerry tolerated school but excelled in learning French…. A good enough reason to eventually move to Spain ! Youth in the Forties and Fifties was much more interesting that the playing of computer games in the confinement of a bedroom. With immense opportunities for getting up to enjoyable mischief, and Gerry was constantly in trouble with his parents, for not only doing his share, but as the eldest son, often taking the blame for the escapades of his younger brothers. His Father was not amused to find his vegetable patch infested with grass snakes Gerry had collected from local railway embankments. His bedroom curtains were lost after Gerry accidentally set them alight when playing with matches. There was so much mischief to be made and life was great fun with things like ‘scrumping’… this was obtaining neighbour’s apples without permission, when in fact, they would have been freely given if asked for, but not nearly as much fun ! There were all the seasonal pastimes of conkers, collecting frogspawn, making Dandies, using pram wheels or toboggans for use in the snow. A game called ‘ring a bell and bunk it’ was mischief of it’s day, much to the annoyance of people answering their doors to find nobody there. Years before Gerry was born, an aircraft crashed into the local park. Being during the war years, it was loaded with ammunition which got scattered and would often be found years later as it surfaced during landscaping by park gardeners. Gerry found a bullet one day and decided he would see what would happen if he hit it with a hammer – the result was that he shot himself in the leg ! When most boys were collecting stamps, Gerry decided to collect cheese labels and built a huge collection by writing to factories all over the world. During the mid-fifties and after leaving school at the age of fifteen, Gerry became interested in Rock and Roll music and dancing, whilst becoming one of the early ‘Teddy Boys’. He was well dressed, well behaved and purely expressed a youthful exuberance, which was unfortunately not the general reputation people have unfairly labeled Teddy Boys with. During Gerry’s working life he was almost always self employed and had a very keen eye for opportunities to turn a penny into a pound. Over the years he had many small business ventures which provided his income and even in retirement, after moving to Spain, could not resist becoming involved with car boot sales, to turn a profit on anything that came to hand. Gerry had several failed marriages which must have been traumatic, but during these, he also had many happy times which is always better to remember. He had children and his eldest son Kevin is here today, having travelled out from Bristol, UK. Gerry, you will be so sadly missed by everyone who knew and loved you – God bless you.