Tony Mellett

Tony was a big guy with a huge heart and everyone who met him felt the same way. He was a very private man with a pretty wicked dry sense of humour,who adored his family especially his children and step children and all of our, then 8 grandchildren-we have since had another one and there is one on the way! Being a grandad meant everything to him. He left behind both his parents, Bridget and Jim.With Tony’s passing and their eldest child of only 54, has left them both devastated to say the least. Tony served nearly 20 years in the Armed Forces leaving as a Seargent in the Royal Signals, of which he was very proud to be as his father was before him. Tony and I would of been married 18 years this September gone but together 20.In the last five years Tony decided to take up “Outdoor open Swimming” and after two years of entering every outdoor swimming event around Great Britain he decided to join our local Open Water Swimming club, The Chalkwell Redcaps.Here he met like minded people who were as crazy as he was who also loved this sport.We enjoyed this together although he did the majority of the swimming as I found it far to cold for me. So my crazy Mermaid of a husband crammed as much swimming into his daily routine as was feasibly possible. All with my support either holding his towel or getting his flask ready and waiting for him for when he got out of the water.This swimming took place ALL year round and in only his swimming trunks!! Tony was also part of a relay swimming team called ‘The Southend Sharks’ where they trained for almost a year to swim and conquer the English Channel-but sadly their swim was halted 6km from the French coast due to severe weather conditions.To say his team were gutted was an understatement! So-with the Channel still to be beaten by them it was ‘unfinished Business’ the team changed their name, (as they also had a few new faces to the team) trained hard again to repeat their swim for September 2014. But sadly for Tony it wasn’t to be 🙁 This the team did AND conquered it with more fighting spirit than ever before!!
We both made some fantastic friends within the club which for me are still fantastic supportive friends who I cannot ever thank enough for just ‘being there’ for me. It is no secret that I absolutely adored Tony (and still do!!) and knowing he felt the same way, was like an unspoken bond. He never felt uncomfortable showing his true feelings about me regardless of the company, which was something that he passed onto all of our four boys. We all miss Tony desperately, especially his parents, siblings, and all of our children and g’children,but my life has been changed considerably.There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t cry, or feel that I really would rather be wherever he is. I love that guy with my heart and soul and I know I always will and I think about Tony every minute of every day but I just try to get by each day as it comes and to the fullest as I know it’s what Tony would want me to do. It’s too easy to roll over and give in. He lived his life to the full-literally.I was always so proud of him and I want him to look down on me and say ”that’s my Sarah Jane”