I am writing about Joseph because he is living far away and writing about him helps me to remember him.
Born on the day of the Grand National (a famous horse race) in 1987 at Torbay Hospital, Joseph was the fourth and final child of Martin and Joanna. When he was only just a toddler he managed to fall face first into the family pond and nearly drowned. Perhaps as a result of this, he spent his early days becoming very good at swimming and rugby and, despite several bumps and scrapes including getting a screwdriver jabbed in his eye and scraping the gums off his two front teeth when he fell on to a box of toys, he left Eden Park Primary School and began life at Churston Grammar School.
Later on in life his abilities in the swimming pool would come in useful as he trained to be a lifeguard. Tired of the low pay and lack of adventure, he left the UK and headed to Australia where he spent several months travelling around living in hostels and working on local farms picking bananas.
It was while flying ‘down under’ that he met the love of his life, Marissa who he would later go on to marry in 2019. His greatest achievement is arguably the time he saved two of Marissa’s cousins from drowning when they got caught in a rip-tide (a powerful current that sucks you out to sea).
Like a scene from Baywatch, Joseph sprinted down the beach and swam out to the edge of an underwater sandbar where the children were delicately perched with their heads barely above water. He arrived just in time and clung on to both of them; one on each arm. He had to wait some time for help to arrive, but fortunately, all ended well thanks to him. This is not the only example of him saving someone’s life in the water.
I think Joseph is a very courageous and helpful person and many people owe their lives to him and his swift actions. Also, he is my younger brother, but I look up to him.
Hey Tobias,
Before I respond, I wanted to say that I really hope Joseph has read this. What An Honour to have your Brother on the other side of the world write about You to help Him remember the magic of You! I think this is a beautiful expression of the power and therapeutic benefits of writing. That final line is special. 💌
From the outset, you paint quite the character! Your clever use of alliteration lends a positive lightness to an early near-tragedy, mirroring the way Joseph uses said tragedy to spur him towards later heroism. I 🧡 the way that you touch on the many things that touch you about Joseph’s life, spurred on always by his passion for swimming. 🏊🏻♂️
Marcela has written about how the sea has a special meaning for her and I commented on my 🧡of swimming, under her post. 🏊🏾 This is why your apt ‘Baywatch’ ref grabbed me – I 🧡 visiting Miami North Beach (the quiet end) and swimming for hours in the ocean. When a helicopter flies over, I sing the theme to Baywatch. Aloud. 🚁🙉
Thankfully, I’ve never needed a hero like your Joseph but you never know. 🦸🏻♂️
Thank you Nicola for your appreciative and considered comments. It is an honest and heartfelt tribute, which I think comes through. It was quite a quick draft I did, with the view to sharing it with my class, as I was teaching them how to write biographies of their loved ones as part of our home learning. I think they found it useful as an example when we were studying the genre and I shared with them my process in creating it.
In fact, both Marcela and I are working on a joint example of practice for the Writing for Pleasure Centre based around this project. It produced one amazing result in particular, which I would like to share with you at some point.
I like your personal response to this piece of writing and the connections you made. I’m not sure my kids got the Baywatch reference, but I’m glad you did! I also enjoyed your analysis of some of the writing tricks going on, which I hadn’t even realised I had done. Interesting that.
That’s great Tobias. The sort-of-oxymoron in the last sentence about being older but looking up to his is a great ending.