Ish found his opportunity and just so happened to be visiting this mutual friend about a car in order to get to know this girl. This girl was Maria, recently moved from Slovenia she was also making a new life for herself in London. Ish worked his gentlemanly charm and over time they dated, partied, lived their best life and within no time at all, they got married and started a beautiful loving family with three amazing, funny, talented, gifted, incredible, stunning, beautiful children ;)

It's now the 80's and family life came naturally to Ish, both with his own family and the family he made in London. He made fatherhood look easy, taking every bump along the way with ease and making every effort to think about others before himself, even when it wasn't obvious to us, his family always came first.

Ish, was wise and patient, he was a father figure for so many more people than just his children, if you were lucky enough to spend sometime with him, you would know that he always inspired solutions, wisdom and positivity. Something you would hear Ishmeil say regularly with the utmost conviction is the value of good manners, politeness and respect — and clean shoes,

Growing up, he always made an effort with bringing family together by going to or throwing a party almost every weekend with his children and the usual suspects Uncle Forouk and Aunty Razia — up until they moved to Canada. These parties were where the fun was at, a place where we could all get together, eat together, laugh, catchup and "...get up to all kinds of shtoopidness". The kids would stay up alongside their parents till the early hours of the morning singing and dancing to Soul, Reggae and Soca tunes like 'Nani whine', 'Tiny winy', 'One cent, ten cent dollar', 'Hot hot hot' and 'Long time'.

Every occasion was another moment he wanted to share with his kids, still playing cricket regularly, he would take his children to watch and support his team every weekend where the kids played a vital role tasting all the ice-cream and sandwiches before the players could. This was more than just a cricket match though, it was another opportunity to share his time with his family and friends, even when it got competitive playing against the 'John Fischer' old boys, that is when you knew where the 'Racal Decca' team supporters were, when you heard them kissing teeth.

Ish encouraged his sons to get involved with sports as much as possible, dropping them off to training, picking them up, he never missed a competition and without fail, you would see him watching and supporting you from the sidelines, you could genuinely see how proud he was as a father for his sons.

An avid movie fan, Ishmeil took his children to the cinema to see all the latest big movies, Star Wars, Superman, Lion King and Matrix to name a few. When Ish got one of the first VHS players on the market, the movie nights started! Sitting up till late with his kids watching their first VHS movies with cult classic's like Enter the Dragon, Warriors, The Message and Saturn Three (dad was a big Farrah Fawcett Majors fan, does the first name sound familiar :)

The family always had amazing trips and Ish loved to travel to Canada, in and around Slovenia, Croatia and Italy. There was one trip in particular, when the whole family drove through Europe at the time Maria was pregnant with Miles, they broke down in Munich, and flew down the Austrian mountains with barely any break pads left on the car. But in true Ishmeil style being the charismatic man he was, they met some amazing people and made friend's along the way, including the lovely couple who let the whole family stay with them when they broke down in Munich at 1am in the morning.

At that time, Friday night was treat night for us, Dad used to come back from work at the garage in Brixton with chocolate goodies like a Whisper, Flake or a Lion bar. He would get to the window to see our snotty noses pressed against the window, dribbling and everything waiting until he came in with a big smile on his face and all them goodies.