Kedi Gato

I'm sorry about your loss, Victoria.

She used to post fabulous photos.

 

My Sincere condolences Victoria and your family

 

my sincere condolences and thoughts Victoria x

 

So VERY sorry to read this Victoria.

Val

 

Sincere condolences Victoria, so sorry

Regards Jack McHammocklashing

 

Thank you kindredspirit, John, mowgley, Marley, al n, Val & Jack. I will respond to your personal messages in due course.

This past week has given me time for thought and I would like to share with you my memories ...

It is a very difficult time for Peter as he and Anne have been together for nearly 50 years, having met and married in Alabama in 1965, had their son in 1966 and moved to Germany (Peter being in the German Air Force) in 1967.

Sis worked part-time for a few years when their son started school but working did not suit her so she became a housewife keeping the large home they had built immaculate and taking an interest in the substantial garden whilst Peter worked as a teacher. She loved baking cakes and would make tons of jam each year, mostly from fruit produced from their own trees.

I had married in 1968 and remained in Alabama till the end of 1977 when we moved to the UK. During this time we visited Germany once in 1972 (when Sis first met my t'other half and he named her DDSIL for Dearest Darling Sister in Law and that is all he has ever called her) and Sis visited the States once but we kept in touch with letters (remember them? ... when you actually put pen to paper) and the occasional phone call. After we moved to the UK we saw each other more frequently with us either going to Germany or them visiting the UK. Letters still continued. When we bought our first apartment in Portugal in 1988 we would arrange to overlap our holidays here, us arriving first, their arrival and a few days together then them staying on for another week or so after our departure. It was on one of these visits that Sis took an abandoned kitten back to Germany with her to join her two Siamese, Tonto and Mingo then aged about 12. She had previously had another Siamese called Sammy Cheng. The new Portuguese interloper was named Gato (Portuguese for male cat, although it should have been Gata as 'he' was really a 'she'). Like me, she was passionate about her cats and Gato lived to be 16, a very pampered pet indeed.

We went on the Internet in 2006 and in June t'other half suggested I join a gardening forum and sent me a link to the RHS site. I asked him what I was supposed to do on such a site and he said talk to the people about what I liked most ... gardening. I thought this most bizarre but I joined but it was so boring but I saw Nathan (our Webmaster) was having a conversation with someone about his new forum and stated that he had about 200 members ... so I had a lookie and joined originally as Lady of Leisure. In August I convinced Sis to join and she did as Kedi-Gato (Kedi being Turkish for cat, so Cat-Cat) with her Avatar being that of Gato. She later hosted her own hobbies forum along with some ex-members of GC.

Around the same time I took up photography and suggested Sis do the same ... and an excellent photographer she was especially with her macro shots ... she particularly liked bugs and critters!

In 2009 they bought a house in Florida and Sis delighted in growing tropical and sub-tropical flora that she could only dream of in Germany.

In January of 2013 we discovered we had two older brothers, Clive age 68 living in Nottinghamshire and Dexter age 72 living in Qatar at the time now Taiwan. The boys had the same father and mother and Sis and I had the same father as the boys but a different mother. Sis was fortunate to have Dexter's son visit her whilst on a business trip to Germany and then Clive and his son visited her later in the year. They communicated every couple of weeks.

Although we saw each other little during her lifetime because of living in different countries, with the internet we we able to keep in touch weekly (if not daily at times) and spoke on Skype once or twice a month. We were night and day in personalities but close at the same time. I love music but Sis would ask us to turn it off, irrespective of the genre, because she found music annoying. I have driven convertibles since 1978 but Sis would only get in them if the roof was up! However, we shared many good things together and these memories will be with me forever.

Sis was a very loving, selfless and generous person. Rest in Peace my Darling Sister ... you have left a big gap in my life. xx

PS Since the weekend she died, a Siamese cat comes and visits us daily ... living amidst thousands of orange trees we don't know from where ... I just wonder ...

 

What lovely words & memories @Victoria

 

I was looking around and I have a few plants growing that she sent me seed of, the red peach for one, and I really must get that Cassia to flower this year.

 

I didn't know her on the forums, Victoria, but you have painted such a colourful picture of who she was, what she loved and how she lived: it has truly brought her alive in my minds eye - what a fitting tribute!

It is never easy to lose anyone, let alone a sibling, I know it! But it is always a joy to remember how special they are and to take comfort in the memories they gave us to treasure and cherish.

Be gentle with yourself: I'll be holding you in my heart xMx

 

I'm sorry to hear your news Victoria, your description of your sister has painted a picture for all of us who didn't have the opportunity to meet her here on GC, she was obviously a warm hearted person.

Perhaps you could call this visitor of yours Gato.

 

Oh no! So sad to read/hear this. I remember her sending me an Indian Red Peach tree seed some years back. I'm so sorry Vicky, she was a lovely lady....