Eulogy Henry Oliver Tucker 17.12.21 Alford Crematorium (part one) by mum. It’s the little things that stand out most, how he loved coming home from school and getting straight into his onesie, his passionate rapping to Lucas Graham’s 7 years and even more passionate rap to the Pokémon song theme (it’s on the tribute page) The way he kept his room so tidy and had a hissy fit if someone so much as dared to move anything. The way he always offered to give his brother anything he no longer wanted and spent hours helping to set up Ben’s new computer for him. The such thoughtful and creative poems he wrote for mum and dad, especially the lines “even though you have been made redundant, your smile still remains abundant” and “sometimes you may annoy me but you’ll always be there for me” (for Dad) and for me on Mother's Day “Your beaming smile lights up everyone’s days” and his hours spent making a lump of clay into a beautiful red rose. This year’s Mother's Day was a stunning hand drawn picture of a mother bird feeding her chicks in a tree. Henry loved all animals, especially his pets, Harriet our first dog that the boys grew up with used to come on the school runs with us and knocked me off my bike whilst I was towing the boys in the bike trailer and both lads falling out school bags all onto the grass. 7 years ago, we got Basil dog, his faithful best friend (he wrote in his journal) Henry was so protective of Basil becoming most upset if anyone teased Basil too much. During lockdown he asked for an axolotl a very weird sort of lizard fish, and the bloody thing only cost £20 when we collected it with Henry coming back with me in the car with it in a bag making me drive slowly and carefully so as not to upset it! It cost much more in pipes, filters, tanks and food, and after carefully looking after it for 4 months he made a very hard decision to rehome it as we couldn’t keep the water cool enough for it to thrive. I spent a whole day driving to Basildon and back to deliver it to its new owner. I couldn't have got away with just taking it to the river as I knew Henry being Henry would have asked the new owner to send him pictures as proof of Kohe settling in okay! He made sure all his animals have the best, Tsuki cat has the best cat food, a cat tree, shelving to climb, fish toys, water fountain and he left us specific instructions of how to care for her as he had been. Henry was our tech expert, problem solver and stubborn little sod. If he had a point to prove he was like a dog with a bone and it was bets not to get into a debate about anything as it could go on for hours! He was actually usually 100% correct, and it frustrated him when people couldn’t get something right straight away such was his black and white thinking. There’s a funny video of him and Dad setting up a bed frame, he called everyone “stupid” or “idiot” pretty regularly! He didn’t like to ask anyone for help and wanted to research everything himself. He was clever, too clever for his young vulnerable mind. We had many brilliant family holidays from when the boys were very young in the caravan: visiting sites at Halloween with friends, dressing up the caravan and ourselves, was his favourite time of year dressing up as a zombie covering his entire face with red lipstick and charcoal and ripping up his clothes. Another time I took the boys to Filley in a 3-man tent and we have a lovely video of Ben and Henry egging each other on to jump in the freezing sea. So cute! Staying in cottages with us and his nana, auntie jo and cousin Oliver, hanging from the beams and chasing each other round the table and sofa for hours.