rom Sue Dunne.....
The first time I met Al Gavin was when he came to Cardiff, South Wales Uk, for the Lennox Lewis V Frank Bruno fight. I think this was in 1993.
We hit it off straight away and I left Al that day with an armful of gifts he had given me. I was later to learn that this was not a one off, but pretty much every time I met Al, with my family, we always had gifts from him.
We all loved to listen to Al telling us about his experiences and encounters of his life.
One story I remember in particular was about Al visiting an Aunt of his when he was younger, apparently the Aunt wasn’t a very good cook, and one of her favourite recipes was a concoction that he called cabbage soup. He said he always hoped there was something different to eat when he went to visit her, but she would always serve him this cabbage soup.
Although Al was not very keen on the soup he always ate it. His brother? rarely visited his Aunt as he hated the cabbage soup and made fun of Al when he said he had been to see his Aunt.
Many years later when the Aunt died she left some money to Al in her will, but nothing to his brother.
Al’s brother suggested that he share the money between the two of them. Al’s come back to his brother was “you should have eaten the soup”.
Al had many stories like this to tell and several times we suggested that he write a book, Al’s response was, no-one would want to read it. I am sure everyone who knew him would agree that there are lots of people who would have read it and it would have been lovely for us to read and remember other such stories that I am sure Al told to all his friends.
Al was a diamond, a unique irreplaceable diamond, we will miss him forever.
