Small graveside service for Nick

It is hardly a remarkable confession by any one of us that there are few people whom we unhesitatingly recall from the myriad we've met or known throughout our lifetime. What it is that engenders a moving recollection is equally singular. Peculiarly it isn't always the strength of association between the admirer and the admired. The man who is the subject of this particular footprint is one for whom I occasionally worked and with whom I occasionally socialized.  Significantly I did however ritually break the morning fast with him and other cronies for about thirty years. But as I say, this does not of itself predict a memory, much less a repeatable or favourable one. What then made Nick so stimulating to me?

Without being coy I can say in an instant that the predominant character of Nick which appealed to me was his unquestionable intelligence. He had the further flattering attribution of having diluted this compelling talent so as to avoid the otherwise unbecoming pretence of superiority. And he combined those surmounting features with an unparalleled sense of humour.  I continue unabashedly to this day to expropriate Nick's witticism!

Though Nick began his career as I did myself as a working stiff, he elevated this mundane though honourable objective to that of a capital investor. This is a transition which many observe but few follow. Nor is it inconceivable that the certitude of that preoccupation was guaranteed.  As a former real estate lawyer I know only too well that the majority of investors fizzled.  Like any other successful agenda there is far more required than mere circumstance.

I venture to say that anyone who knew Nick knows his unflagging affection for two women in his life - namely, his wife Jean and his daughter Nicki. That affection was an honourable and inestimable single-mindedness which those two gals happily reciprocated! The Mutual Admiration Society was not however in any way unsettling; rather it signalled the resolute constancy of a family in orbit.

To borrow a phrase from my own late father, we are here today to wish Bon Voyage to Nick as he goes into space! As mystical as it sounds I have no doubt that Nick's memory will linger and perhaps even re-visit us from time to time.