Crunch time

At The Change in Windsor Great Park with Ben and Ross

Well. Crunch time. I have to come clean at this point and admit that I have been quite poorly for the last three weeks. The gang that I train with here abouts have know about this since of course I have been a noteable 'No Show'. Repeated courses of medication have not budged the chest problem and a week ago Friday I was sent for an X-ray at Worthing hospital that showed that I had an infection. The doctor explained that with my PNEUMONIA..... It was unlikely that I would recover in time for my race.

Ever the optomist; I insisted that Steve drove me to Rotterdam. On turning off the ring road there into our hotel, we had a phone call from a dear friend and business associate to tell us that our friend (His partner) had suffered a massive heart attack and died. Ben Everett was the same age as Steve. 

       Picnic time in Windsor Great Park with the Acquisitions Men from Raliegh NC USA 

I did register for Worlds. Not looking great in this otherwise great photo.

We had driven there in one of our work vans dropping off a delivery in Brussels that Steve had stitched in along with a collection in France on the way back to help with the X’s.

Steve has an amazing nerve for finding places to park and several times pulled up next to vans delivering close to where we needed to go. I fact I only had to walk 50 paces to the registration tent and back. We then drove to the swim site where there was a recy swim in progress. Again he parked between work vehicles there on a paved area. He had repeated dozens of times, “We are just looking, you are not to even think about racing, that would be just too stupid even for you”.

That little outing plum wore me out and once back in our hotel room I stayed put and only got up briefly to go and eat in the hotel restaurant. Next morning he started packing and went to see the hotel reception where we had booked for five nights. He explained that his wife was ill and they did not charge to the days we had booked and checked in for but not taken, which was more than fair of them.

 Steve drove me home yesterday calling off our route just fifteen miles to collect some garden furnishings that were for shipment from the UK.

Calais to Rotterdam is just five hours. I was wrapped up nicely and while Steve drove, we did a dozen or so crossword puzzles the most enjoyable being on where the clues contained deliberately confusing typo’s.

We were home and indoors by tea time. One episode of Sherlock and I was dispatched to bed with no resistance feeling completely blown away by the terrible news about our dear friend Ben on top of being so unwell. Shocked through and through.

Ben was a classic southern gentleman and there will be a big hole in the world  now he has so suddenly left us all. I wrote the poem below about him last year and he loved it when I emailed it to him.

Ben’s Advice

Ben is seen as one of a dying breed

A gentleman right down to his toes

Principles send him out to succeed

Friends can but follow from his lead

Life’s work and dedication surely shows

Ya'll take care of each other now!!

Sights set high with ethics strong but pure

Each project attacked with style and flare

Growth springs from roots sewn to endure

Falling into his old time silken web’s allure

Personality springs to use but wisely there

Ya'll take care of each other now!!

Never seen as somebody one should fear

Trust, experience and a peck sound advice

Manners taught from one that he held dear

His parting words are heartfelt and clear

Whenever he parts, once, twice or thrice

Ya'll take care of each other now!!

Ben Everett: Obituary 12.09,17

William Benjamin Everett, Jr. of Raleigh, age 67, passed away on September 12, 2017.  Ben was the son of the late Mr. William Benjamin Everett, Sr. and Mrs. Annie Louise Taylor Everett of Robersonville, North Carolina.  He was a member of First Christian Church in Robersonville.   After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1972, Ben enjoyed an early career as a home and commercial builder, owning and operating William B. Everett Construction in Greenville.  But his love of antiques and all things British led Ben to a second career when he started the Raleigh antiques firm of Acquisitions, Ltd. in the early 1990’s with his partner, Ross Spain.  Ben poured himself into his business on a daily basis for the last 25 years, extending the business to additional locations in Charlotte, Atlantic Beach, High Point, Wilmington and Stamford, Connecticut.  While Ben loved antiques and traveling to England for frequent buying trips, he loved even more the time spent with customers and colleagues, making countless friends along the way.  As one dear friend recalls, “There was always a welcome chair beside his desk waiting for me with any problems, information, pending events or news to be shared.  And that chair stayed occupied most of the time as we all took our turn!”

Ben is survived by his partner and best friend, B. Ross Spain of Raleigh; his sisters, Elizabeth Ann Everett Green (Billy) of Robersonville and Mary Everett Whitehurst (Buddy) of Wilmington; nieces, Lib Johnson Creech (Morrison) of Charlotte, Lou Johnson of Clinton and Molly Whitehurst Bourne (Banks) of Charlotte; and nephew, Clay Whitehurst (Diana) of Raleigh.  Ben is also survived by 3 great nieces and 3 great nephews.

A graveside service will be held at Robersonville Cemetery, Highway 64-Alternate, at 2:00 pm on Friday, September 15th.  The family will receive friends afterward at the home of Mr. and Mrs. William A. Green, 201 Pinetree Drive.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials to be made to First Christian Church of Robersonville Music Fund or Children’s Home Society of North Carolina.  Arrangements by Biggs Funeral Home in Williamston.

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This one below is about Ben and Ross’s baby niece born with heart and lung defects, who has had such a health struggle in the first year of her young life. In that time she too knew Ben's love that helped her fight I am sure.

Catie-Ross

Life is not always easy for new born babies,

first year on earth, Catie-Ross showed this.

Some people thought she would never survive

as intensive care tubes invade this little miss.

Rarely possible to feel her mother’s lips kiss

as doctors and nurses fought to keep her alive.

Anxiety as treatment sometimes seems way amiss.

All ifs’ and buts’ and too many maybe’s.

Waiting was tough and hope dreadfully slight,  

the one permanent for the family was hope,

as push came to shove, they silently prayed.

Rarely a break from needles and stethoscope.

Operations stretched chance like a tightrope.

Parents and baby bonded through their crusade,

how can something so tiny possibly cope? 

Born with the spirit to fight her own fight.

She smiles and chuckles through every pain,

too often touch comes from a latex glove,

so unfair when desperately needing a cuddle,

private promises offered to heaven above.

Picture of innocence is this sweet baby dove

Doctors’ solemnly stand in a robed huddle.

This child survived on one thing, and that’s love

A family’s pilgrimage was not held in vain.