My Uncle Ray Well, what can say about my dear Uncle Ray? I came into this world in 1955 when he was 15 years old. A prime candidate as a readymade babysitter made all the more appealing as my late parents had one of the few TV. Sets in the Holloway area, & Ray, always on the lookout for a good night out, must have thought he’d struck gold! Little did he know when he said, ‘yes, she’ll be fine with me’ that I was a spoilt little madam with a fine pair of lungs & an even greater wish to be center of attraction as the first born grandchild of the Bayford family & apple of Granddad Charlie’s eye. My first real recollection of Ray was of him taking the arms & legs off of one of the many dolls bought for me by granddad Charlie & throwing them across the room, making me ‘run’ to pick them up & try to put them back on, this was years before Krypton Factor came on the box, pity he didn’t patent the idea. Needless to say, this kept me busy for a few hours, so he could watch 65 Special or whatever it was in them days. Next real memory was sitting in the front row at the Dominion Tottenham Court Road watching West Side Story, my goodness, we’d gone ‘Up West’ for our birthday (mine is 27th July, Ray’s 28th) so started my life long love affair with West End stage musicals & Hollywood blockbusters. What an afternoon we had! Like to think we went to the Aberdeen Steak House afterwards, but last Sunday when we had our last lunch together, I learnt that this particular venue was reserved for the lad’s night out, & maybe the odd date where he was out to impress. Given that he said last week that he ran a car, had a great social life, & left a few bob at home for Nanny on £5 a week, I guess I was lucky to get a Kiora orange & choc ice that memorable day! Nevertheless, he has something to answer for to this day as I cannot pass a West End theatre with a musical on without buying a ticket, have been known to spend many an afternoon in the Finchley multiplex with grumbling grandchildren thinking they were going to Ice Age 3 or Harry Potter in 3D only to be confronted with a load of tap dancers & a chorus line (thank God for popcorn, pick n mix & early supper McD as a bribe!) & whereas the highlight of any New York trip for most is the Statue of Liberty or Time Square, mine has always been Broadway every night. This is why I’ve loved him all my life. He showed me another way forward; I could reach for my dream, could do something different from what our family was used to. Get my education, degree & dream job writing ads for the paper, drive a Mercedes-Benz, travel to the States to see him wherever he hung his baker’s apron & generally mess about with his sisters, my mum Lily & aunt Vi in the Florida sunshine. Who else can say they sat by mistake in the Kennedy’s pew at Mass on Easter Sunday in Palm Beach & stayed there because his sister Lil said ‘We were here first!’ & lived to tell the tale? In the last words he said to me on Sunday ‘Love you Kid!’ Dearest darling Uncle Ray, Rest in Peace, say hello to the troops upstairs.