On this day, five years ago, we said goodbye to daddy. He wanted to go, the girls could look after ma and he didn't fancy hanging around with tubes stuck in him.

He went like he wanted, quickly and without fuss, much to the dismay of my uncle, who bless him, wanted a kilometre long procession led by an army contingent and band, followed by his colleagues in Hoogly Docking, GEC and Nicco Park, the CD block residents and then family.

I remember one of my aunts remembering him as we were sitting around that evening and, sniffing to herself, saying, 'your father, great man, engineer, brigadier, Nobel Prize winner,' and thinking how daddy would have laughed his head off if he had heard her.

We remembered him by drinking his whisky, poring through all his albums and organizing a farewell that he would have liked, all his friends, the music of the fifties and sixties and a lot of food.

Five years on, he still makes life easier for us. Whenever we kids are stuck on an issue, it's WWDD time, What Would Daddy Do!
The Arucaria Pine still stands straight daddy. And the house is freshly painted. You would approve.