Raymond lived most of his life in North Ormesby. He was born on July 5th 1925 in Stovin Street and was the youngest of five children. His mother died when he was eleven, so he went to live in Worsley Street with his aunt and uncle which was the next street to Stovin Street. He still recalled his sister Ivy sending him some roller skates from London where she had gone to work in service aged 14. He loved those skates and never had them off his feet. He hated school as the teachers were very strict and quick to deal out punishment in those days. However he loved Friday afternoon as it was art, a passion he kept throughout his life and attended art classes when he retired, along with woodwork. When he married Lily he stayed in Worsley Street. but further up the street from his aunt and uncle. Ray and Lily had three children all born in Worsley Street; they were overjoyed when Christine was born, as their first child had been still born. They quickly wondered what they had let themselves in for when faced with a baby that loved nothing better to scream day and night. Ray solved this on a weekend by walking miles with her in the pram as this kept her quiet. When Geoffrey came along, he was expecting more of the same but couldn't have been more wrong. Geoffrey hardly ever cried and Dad recalls going to bed one night leaving Geoff in his pram, forgetting he was there because he was so quiet. Then along came Joan, who was a mixture of both and supposedly cried like a motor bike. Ray was a very active man and hardly ever home, the only time you could find him in was at meal times and bed time. After he retired he would visit his allotment every day and go walking. He loved to catch the bus into Redcar and have a walk around. When he was in his late 70's he caught the bus to Redcar on a Xmas Eve not realising the buses stopped running early. When finding no buses running, he decided to walk all the way back to North Ormesby without asking for a lift from his family When asked the next day if he was ok after his long hike, he replied his legs were a bit stiff that was all. He spent two long spells in hospital while suffering from dementia. On one occasion the man in the next bed to him informed us that Dad had put his dentures in his beaker with his teeth. We found this very funny and luckily so did the man in the next bed. Dad was in two care homes, firstly Victoria House and then Oaklea. His personality went through a big change during this time. He turned from a very quiet reserved person into someone who loved nothing better than to laugh and joke with anyone and everyone and adored to be the centre of attention. The staff from both homes would tell us such funny stories of the things he would do and say, too numerous to tell or we would be here all day. When he first went into Victoria House his favourite trick was to escape, and many is the time we have spent searching for him, but he always headed back to North Ormesby. Unfortunately not all the changes were good, as towards the end he could get aggressive towards the staff at Oaklea when they tried to help him and he didn't want them to. We felt bad about this as we had never known Dad to be aggressive ever. The staff at Oaklea were so very good to him and spoilt him rotten and we grew to feel part of an extended family.