Roland Humphries 1980 to 2003

Roland continued to do well at school until the summer, apart from daydreaming too much.

There were local walks with Rose and his brothers or a neighbouring friend, or she would walk with them to a safe area in the nearby lanes where they would ride their bikes. They did more and more bike riding this year, sometimes with Jeremy on his bike.

The garden pond played host to some tadpoles that Roland brought home from school; he would sometimes sit by the pond watching the creatures that lived in it. When Vi and Bert took him to an event where he stroked a tarantula he was very excited about it.

Visits to Sidmouth continued. The Sidmouth Folk Festival was on during one visit, and Rose took Roland and his brothers to see ‘Incantation’ which they all loved, in the summer evening in the arena.

Roland and Jacob began karate lessons. Roland was excited to get his karate suit and wanted to take it to show his school class. The karate phase lasted about a year, until local classes came to an end.

Back at school in a new class Roland began to do less well. He was not happy and his teacher said that he sometimes did outstanding work but usually under-achieved. He surprised his family at a school charity event, by doing seventy sponsored sit ups when only about twenty-five had been expected.

Roland must have been attached to things connected with home, because when he accompanied Jeremy to the tip with the old sofa, he cried as he watched it going into the skip.

In the autumn he and the family went tree planting with the Conservation Volunteers.

He had been experimenting on the piano by himself and could pick out simple tunes such as the theme from Eastenders. So Roland began going to piano lessons. This was probably a mistake as he didn’t like the formal approach and, after several months, he gave up the lessons.

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