Uncle Ian has always been an important part of mine and my sister’s lives. He is affectionately known as ‘Uncle Ian’ to us, and he fulfilled the role of Grandparent, Uncle and friend.

My first memory of Uncle Ian was when he came to visit our family when we lived in Hong Kong. I must have been no older than 5 years old, and he spent xmas with us introducing and telling us about all things ‘British’ which was fascinating, and particularly memorable to me.

Uncle Ian joined us on a few family holidays in France and his love of the French language, wine and food was apparent. He was keen to cycle to the boulangerie each morning and buy croissants for the family breakfast – not through his love of cycling (!), but because it gave him an opportunity to speak in French with the baker and other customers. Ian was particularly supportive to me when I moved from Scotland to West Sussex for work. I was lured by the opportunity of being
so close to London, and Ian was very encouraging and we enjoyed various day
trips together from the Millennium Dome, the cinema, London museums and
Bluewater shopping centre!! When the Eurostar first opened, Uncle Ian
kindly treated us both to a long weekend in Paris where we visited one of my sisters who was living there - and we had such a pleasant time pretending we were locals, sitting in cafes, drinking wine and watching the world go by.

Uncle Ian loved his soap operas, and I enjoyed teasing him about this. I think this was because he was so fascinated and interested in people. He was always so interested to hear how we were getting on with our studies, lives, work, social life, boyfriends, and never judged or criticised us for our behaviour, our beliefs,
and our decisions. He was so accepting and encouraging in everything we
did.

I am so pleased that I was able to introduce my husband to Uncle Ian. Unfortunately, the Parkinsons had started to take its toll on him at that stage, but he still managed to impress my husband with his in-depth knowledge of Gullane (where we moved to) and gave him a detailed description of the East Lothian topography and weather. I perhaps forgot to warn my husband that Uncle Ian had been a geography teacher for 40 years!

Uncle Ian was part of our Macrae family. Thank you – you will be missed by us all.