A Eulogy for Norman Grundy from Simon Grundy - May 2016

Our Father......Norman was born at 60 Oxford Street, Spondon on 29th June 1936. It was a scorching hot day and his mother Edith said he came out with an amazing suntan and he has loved the sunshine ever since. In 1939, his father Arthur went away to Naples in Italy for 6 years, to fight in the Second World War. On his Fathers return to Spondon a Brother William was soon to arrive. Dad had a very close bond to his dear brother William.

Dad went to Spondon House School as a boy and loved his time there.

Growing up in Spondon, Dad had both many good and sincere friends, many of whom are here today. They all went to the Church Boys' Club and were all mad keen on playing football, so much so that Dad and Doug Green proudly founded and set up Spondon Dynamos (Dynamos coming from Moscow Dynamo, the Real Madrid of the 40s and 50s.) Dad was not only the founder member of Dynamos he both played in goal and managed them.

Dad loved all sports, but another favourite was Table Tennis. He lead St Andrews Church first team to many promotions and Cups. In his heyday I struggled to take a point off him. He had this amazing bat which I still use every week. Dad and his mates had another great past-time.........yes that old favourite..............hedge jumping!!! As darkness drew in, Dad and his mates would wander around Spondon until they found a nice Privet Hedge they could jump into. Depending upon the quality and structure of the hedge it would either bounce them back out or puncture a lung or two. Mick Holmes was declared chief Hedge Jumper and as Dad said "there was no hedge in Spondon that Mick would not take on" Nowadays children have trampolines. So Hannah and Amelia don't try this at home!

Dads finest work was done at the Old Trocadero Dance Hall in Derby during the Summer of 1960 when he met a Belper lass by the name of Margaret.

They married on 7th September 1963 at St.Peters Church Belper, (A carefully planned date.. Derby playing away at Northampton Town on this day and winning 1-0.))

After the wedding they moved to Borrowash and made an addition to the family... Simon.... no not me.....but a black cat (it does seem a little odd though that I was named after mum and dads little Black Cat !) In 1969 they moved on to Little Eaton.

When Dad left school he worked down Stanley Pit with Gret and they were known as the Nibbies, but claustrophobia and working down the pit did not go hand in hand and in 1964 Dad got a job at Rolls Royce Aero Engines. Dad loved Royce's and his many colleagues, he quickly rose through the ranks to Customer Supply Manager for Europe, which involved selling spare aero engine parts to European Airlines and having to spend a lot of time in the Bordeaux region where he acquired a fond taste of fine red wine.

On a business trip in the early 80s Dad boarded a plane to France from EMA . He sat down and ordered his obligatory bottle of red for the flight when a voice said "can I share that with you" Dad recognised the voice immediately, "of course you can Brian." Mr.Clough sat down next to dad and they soon polished off dads red and Brian ordered a second. "What did you talk about dad?" I asked dad. "Football of course" Dad replied "We never stopped talking for the whole flight" he said. But Brian swore me to secrecy and that is the way it shall stay, he said. And it did.

Dad loved the youth of today and yesteryear and always wanted kids to grow up having both fun and good times, he helped run Spondon Youth Club and went on to be the Leader at Pottery Youth Club in Belper. In recent years despite reduced mobility dad helped out at the Little Eaton Youth Club in Village Hall on Friday afternoons.

Youth were important to Dad and became a big part of his life, in the early 70s when mum and dad had not longed moved to Alfreton Road Little Eaton they were burgled. Dad said to Mum " Sorry Marg, you are going to have to sort this one on your own, I am taking the Youth Club on a Bus trip to Blackpool in 10 minutes and off he went............

On the 14th March 1970 Derby were playing away at The City Ground, Nottingham, unfortunately for Dad on the morning of the game Mum went into Labour with me. Dilemma for Dad.........what to do..... Needless to say, Dad of course did the right thing and dropped mum off at Babington Hospital in Belper before meeting up with his mates and heading off to the City Ground, Nottingham. Derby won 3-1 in front of 43,000 fans and of course dad celebrated long into the night in Derby and Spondon with his mates.

When Dad surfaced on the Sunday morning he wondered where Marg had gone, realising that mum was at Babington Hospital he dashed off still heavily under the influence of alcohol but before the introduction of Breathalysers to arrive and find he had become a father at 10.30 the previous night. It was a good weekend all round in the Grundy house.

On August 9th 1973 my brother Matt was born (Fortunately it was a Thursday so no Derby game today!) but again dad thought it best that we went for a game of football at Riber Castle rather than hang about at the hospital all day.

As a family we enjoyed many amazing summer holidays to Malta, Majorca and Greek Isles, dad worshipped the sunshine.

Following illness dad slowed down in recent years, but he always made special time for his grandchildren Hannah and Amelia and his so many very good friends, Neil Arbon and John Preedy have to be mentioned here very dear friends and they continued to play snooker and drink beer up until recent times. And amongst many upstairs, I know that dad will now be sat with another top man, and very dear friend Paddy Wellings probably dissecting the shambles of our football team in the play offs.

Dad loved Little Eaton as much as he loved Spondon, he used to say "It is a lovely village however it is the people in it that make it so lovely." He was right.

He loved to help and would lead the Carnival precession, ran the hoopla stall and latterly helped on the Children's Climbing Wall.

He loved helping the community and enjoyed working in what he called a great "Parish Council Team"

Dad saw good in everyone and it is a true fact that "I never heard my dad have a bad word to sat against anyone, ever, unless of course they held an association with Leeds United or that lot that play in Red down the A52.

Our dad, Norman, loved all without condition.