Shelley the Lifeboat Labrador (28 page)

My veterinary experience also helped me get into the local ‘All England Show Jumping Course’ at Hickstead.  I started to see many more of my equestrian images published and before long started to write features for magazines linked to the images taken.  This has improved to such an extent that I am now writing for several magazines on a regular basis.                           

The Shoreham Airshow returned this time run by the local Royal Air Forces Association branch. My friends at Shoreham Airport helped me assist the small team in promoting the show.  Now 23 years on it is one of the largest airshows in the country and has raised over one and a half million pounds for the RAFA Charity.  From humble beginnings the team there under Don Bean MBE have developed a massive event which now takes up a lot of my free time.  As Press officer I deal with all the media and write the programme whilst working with Don and the team in a variety of things to make it the success it currently is.

I eventually met Cindy and we were married in 2001 and I moved out of my small flat and now live in Felpham, on the West Sussex coast.  All those years of being single have shown me just how wonderful it is to have such a nice and caring wife who supports all I do.

My photojournalism increased and I stopped selling medical products and decided to take it up full time.  I have not looked back since. It has not been easy but it has been fun.

The RNLI now use me to take photographs for their image library at Poole in Dorset.  I still get the chance to go to sea on lifeboats often visiting the Shoreham Lifeboat station. One of my images taken in 2008 on the Selsey lifeboat made a Royal Mail postage stamp, which was a great honour.

I know Shelley would have been very proud of me.  It was her friendly and warm attitude to others that made many friends for me in those early days in Southwold.  Her fun around the different lifeboat stations and her wagging tale in the water as she swam around the bottom of the empty slipways looking for a stick stays with me to this day.                                                              

My time with Shelley had been one of the happiest periods in my life. We had done things that many others had not done – met many people – seen many places – shared affections and had been there when we needed each other.  Her small wet paw – her cold wet nose – her wagging tail – her friendly warm lick was now a distant and loving memory.  Shelley had crossed the ‘Rainbow Bridge’ and was with her many new friends floating on a soft cloud looking down on us all.

I still see her now in my thoughts and have many wonderful pictures to remind me of those precious days together as a Lifeboat Dog.  I know I was right when I befriended Solo and took him into my life.  I was giving him a home that was needed and had Shelley been around to see him I am sure she would have told me in her own inimitable way that I had made the right decision.  Shelley taught me a lot and I was able to pass that experience onto looking after all my other dogs that followed.

You were a true ‘Lifeboat Dog’ and thanks to you I am still around many years later enjoying life the way you wanted me to enjoy it.  You helped take some of the many pressures of life away from me often making me smile when I was low. I know it has benefited me health wise, giving me an opportunity to tell others about you and that is the purpose of this book.  For that I thank you!

End of Chapter Thirty Eight

(THE END)

IN MEMORY SHELLEYS ABSENT FRIENDS

Grace Young, Derek Young, Bill Periam, Marjorie Periam, Basil Periam, Brenda Burns, Brian Patterson, Joyce Patterson, Bob Gilby, Roy Merrick, Tony Catt, Graham Beames, Rick and Daphnie Bath-Jones, Biddy Denney, Jack Henderson, Dave Wainright, Carol Wainright, Jack Silverston, Kenny Voice, Geoff Tugwell, John Baber MRCVS, Harry Richardson, Molly, Ted and Joan Charnley, Peter Dickerson, Peter Clarke, Geoffrey Crockett, Paul McKeown, John Bayliss, Kath Matthews, Sid Page, Veryan Hamments, David Coughlan MRCVS, Maureen Coghlan, Professor Clifford Formstone MRCVS, Professor Geoff Arthur MRCVS, Ronnie Scott, Archer Ryland, David Hooper, Lewis Compton, Guy Meadows, Blaster Bates, Barry Rickby, Harry Moran, Lee Silcox, Ken Day, Chris Pearson, Andrew Pearson, John Hobbs, Minn at The Kings Head, Leslie and Joan Walker, Robert McGowan, John Brown, Adele Boysons, Jeremy Hands, Don Goodall, Frank Harris, Gordon (Griff the cartoonist), Peter Clarke, Ernie Cousins, Barry Curtis, Peter Lowe, Diana Marr-Johnson, and many others who I have not included in this list plus all the RNLI crew members who have given their lives at sea in saving others.

John Periam

January 2013 (Updated)

My thanks go also to my ‘Proof Readers’ that have supported me and for advice when needed.  John Ray, Keith and Mary Mason, Tony Hiron’s.  Many thanks also, to Allan Fowler of ‘Digital Media Consultancy and Services’ for helping with design and layout. Errors will still slip the net and for that I apologise.

Writing a book is not an easy task, and there will always be comments good and bad about the way it is written. As the author I have to be prepared to accept that. I have no regrets in what is written and it has been fun bringing back many memories in the process.

The saddest thing of all is the number of friends I have met through having Shelley who are no longer with us. Life is so short and I am lucky in having shared my life with so many great people. As the saying goes ‘Time present is time past and time past is time gone by’. Something we should all remember!   

I do hope all of you that read this book will get as much pleasure out of it as I did writing it. That is the least I can expect!

Please not forget to support the RNLI along with the many Dog Charities that exist. They all need your kind support.

Keep Happy – John Periam – January 2013   (when this book was amended).