stig elegy

Stig was my nickname for Poppy's late dad, Laurie. Mainly because he tended to preside over a bit of a dump, piles of half-mended things, covered by cobwebs. Laurie started life as a champion cyclist and ended it as a pastoral watercolourist, dying quite suddenly in his garden in the remote Somerset levels 20 years ago.

Yet though his artists' grave in Burrowbridge is overwhelmed by weeds, he lives on in our hearts as there was something strangely free about him. For a start he was the only parent I knew who rooted for rock music at a time when all the others treated it as the devil's spawn.

Another thing: according to family legend, as a WW2 squaddie stationed in India, he let a Japanese prisoner go free. Whereof a court-martial, no one speaks, but this act would prove a durable theme, much to the benefit of any creatures or insects he ever found in trouble.

Perhaps his greatest legacy was the love of his firstborn daughter, Poppy. From his side he must have felt blessed knowing that his particular humour, radical politics, and love for the natural world would remain in safe hands.

And on Poppy's side her fathers love meant she would always be at ease in the company of men.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• laurence mercer
• laurie mercer
• poppy
• burrowbridge