Five people that changed my life

Now retired and with some time on my hands, I can indulge in a bit of life reflection.

This question has been suggested by the leader of our writing group and I have to admit that it has been far from easy. That is, if taken at full face value.

So many people over the years have given the daily course of my life a bit of a nudge, but how many have actually made a fundamental redirection?

Even having applied the above criteria, I am still left with some two dozen characters in the mix.

So I shut my eyes take a pin and have a stab.

The headmaster: (Mr Lord) at Cobden Primary School Loughborough. Aged nine I was getting a long way behind the class with the basic Three R’s.  I was taken to his office by my father to ask what could be done about the situation.  My father told the headmaster that he thought that I was downright lazy.  My head master said ‘David is not so much lazy, but lazy minded.  His first reaction to any situation is to try to avoid that which he deems to be uninteresting. He has intelligence but it requires a lot of motivation.’ (I was 21 before this was revealed to me.)

The second person is my late father who wisely redirected my stated career ambition away from being a chef on the East Coast Main Line Railway. He suggested that I took up the offer of an apprenticeship with Brush Electrical Engineering in Loughborough. Having watched Master Chef a few times I know that he was right.  Lucky passengers!

The third person has to be David Theobald, Chief Engineer of what was then Brush Power Engineering. I was promoted from being an Electrical Fitter to the post of Junior Draughtsman.

The fourth is the Rev. David Pawson, whose talks and debates can still be found online. His kindly wisdom and huge biblical knowledge has changed my concept of Christianity, deepened my faith and given me a framework for human existence. Not just living but how to live.

The last but by a long way not the least is my second wife Jean.  We were introduced through the offices of computer dating.  This was after separate independent interviews in Nottingham, comprising of two detailed written inquisitions. I was informed that I would need quite a strong person if I was to be successful in my search for a partner.

We met and quickly discovered that we had mutual interests including eating out. Also that we both had two children. Our previous relationships had not so much broken, more like worn out. We were helped in as much that we are both Christians but from different backgrounds.

When we were married in 2002 I was asked, ‘was it love at first sight?’ I said ‘More like love at first insight,’ and that has just grown over the years. Jean ‘manages’ me far more easily than my fist wife. She is my whole love, friend and companion.

David Taylor