Humility.....

I can't believe that it's twenty years ago today that a person that i admired and respected immensely passed away. That man was my brother, William Brian Reay B.E.M. He was Chief Engineer submarines (Nuclear), as was our father who was Chief Engineer on 'S' and 'T' class submarines, "Real ones" as my father used to chide my brother. I'm mentioning this because i not only miss the person, but i miss the quality of such individuals. I never heard ignorance, arrogance, or pettiness from these two, and indeed they would go out of their way to help others often at their own expense. I suppose what i'm trying to say is that there's some great people out there who should be sought out and experienced for the benefit to ones self and hopefully that wisdom can be passed on for the benefit of others. I always remember the unusal situation of sat in our front room listening to my father pulling my brothers leg after my brother had told him that they had a fish tank onboard ...... My father turned to me, took his pipe out and said, listen to this boy, a fish tank onboard ! in my day if you had fish onboard you were in real trouble .......giving me a wink from his eye and nodding to my brother....... It was hilariously funny to listen to these two sea dogs, but i always knew that there was a serious side to the pair of them that was locked away. Father had gone from the Atlantic, Malta, right across to Malacca where he faced off the first British sub to sub action with a japanese submarine, thankfully they sank it. Brian spent all his time in boats from Diesels to Nuclear and in all the years i knew them both i think the total conversation time regarding their time at sea would of been only a few hours...... Very humble men, in stark contrast to some of the individuals that i've been bumping into recently........ See you both later........