Leslie Mark Kightley was, without a doubt, one of life's "gentle giants".
Known to you all as Les, his family roots were in Lincolnshire, Scunthorpe to be exact. The third son of a steel worker he attended the Thomas Sumptor school.
Also at the same school was a young lady, two years younger and named Lesley. Young love blossomed, but at the age of 17 Les joined the RAF and went on to train as an airport fireman. His postings tooking him to Cornwall, Norfolk and Lincolnshire.
Lesley decided to leave Scunthoripe in order to follow a career in nursing and the pair of them inevitably drifted apart.
Les, Having left the RAF and accepted a contract in Saudi Arabia working at jeddah airport and only returned to the UK every 6 months.
Lesley, still nursing but also a mother to Robert and Lisa.
Both continued with their own lives, not awareof what eachother were doing. Until Les bumped in to Lesley's sister, Joanne, whilst home on leave.
Joanned explained to him that Lesley and her two children had returned to scuthorpe to live, and had set up a home near to her mother. Les spent the rest of the evening driving around the estate until he found lesley's new home.
He knocked on the door the next morning... and the rest they say... is history.
With this new chapter in his life beginning, Les no longer wanted to be working so far away from home so gave up Saudi. But work in scunthorpe was hard to find, and with the garauntee of a Job in Northampton, the new family packed up and moved as soon as they had a house sorted.
Everything being transported to Northampton in the back of a freezer van, leant by Les's new employer "Tuckley's Foods". Les wasn't a removals expert and worked on the basis of "get it in".
It wasn't an easy move for Lesley as she was dreadfully home sick. But everyone soon settled in to their new life.
From the very start, Les loved Robert and Lisa and treated them as if they were his own. He was always there for them and and stood by them through the tuff times and laughed with them through the good times. Although referred to as Les by both of them, he was Dad to both of them.
He was very protective of them, Lisa in particular. A foolish restaurant tout decided to home in on Lisa one particular evening when the family were on holiday. Lisa was only 15 and the tout decided to turn on his charm. From nowhere, Les appeared... and you know how tall and well built Les was. One look and the tout shrank back.
He was a proud Granddad to Joshua and Hannah, and loving uncle to his niece , Tracey and her children Sam and Rebecca, who now live in Australia.
Les and Lesley both loved travelling. The suitcases were bearly unpacked and put away before Les was planning the next trip. They had visited Japan, Newzealand and discovered a love of cruising.
That said. Les's last holiday was in August of last year when the whole family shared a holiday in norfolk together. It was wonderful although tinged by with sadness as behind all the laughs and smiles was the knowledge that this would be his last family holiday.
Photographs were taken and photo albums painfully put together to ensure memories of the good times.
In November 2012 Les was diagnosed with cancer. This wasn't his first battle against a serious illness, as he had suffered a tragic accident at work many years ago. However, he was back to work within 6 weeks, far sooner than anyone expected or indeed advised. However, there is no point in staying at home when you're not allowed to watch the TV is there?
And he did love his TV...
This time though, the cancer was too much to battle against. The last 6 months were difficult for Les as he had become so dependent on others for his daily care. He never complained and managed to be at home for Christmas, which is somewhere he desperately wanted to be.
The entire family pulled together to enable Les to be at home... His sister in Law "Erica" and her husband "Tony". Although they have always been there for Les and Lesley, for the last few months they were constant in the unconditional love and support.
Les's freinds from work, Gary and Schoie and Lisa's partner, Darren, someone Les always always described as being a "good man"... there supporting Lesley and Lisa.
On the 27th January 2016, Sadly, Les passed away at home with the entire family he so adored, surrounding him.
