ROBERT PASSED AWAY

 ROBERT CHESTERMAN 

we’ll miss you!                                                                                                                  

Solsona, 21/10/ 2018

Robert had such a good memory to remember people and their names. We needed a lot of time just to go through all the people he knew in Solsona, sometimes I didn’t know so much about all his acquaintances.

We will always remember him with his video camera recording Solsona's Carnival and Festa Major for his wife Marcia, always so smart and polite, a true British gentleman. He was very generous and often invited people for a drink in bars or terraces around the town and was pleased to be with people different ages.

He always talked about his family with great pride and we loved it when he came to Solsona with his grand children, Matthew, William and Harvey.

He was really proud of his son, Simon and his talented wife Julie.

The students going to Britain on the Chit-Chat school trip always had the opportunity to practice their English with him. He loved to visit his own country with us and did things, he didn’t normally do like catching buses or going to clubs.

We will always remember him waiting for us with the Catalan flag at the airport or train station and then, it was the moment to take the first official picture of our trip.

Robert made a lot of friends despite never learning our language much and I was impressed he was even a good friend of Mossén Huguet who didn’t speak English. They must have communicate with the heart, both being such kind persons.

My ex-husband Steve and I met Robert in 1997 through the Rafart family, but then we didn’t meet for many years until we met again around 2007 and we kept in touch and since then met every year.

He was a guest in many Chit-Chat classes and some of the students also visited him in Britain.  I also visited him twice with my nephews and he loved to take us around showing us the area. We were really fortunate.

Robert loved Solsona and its people dearly, the mayor David and his “lovely wife” as he used to say . He was an ambassador of our Catalan culture in Britain. He used to send us a St Georges card on the day of our patron saint and he always sent messages on the 11^th of September, our national day. Our class at Chit-Chat always has a Yorkshire calendar and we will always have fond memories of him.

Alba Santaeulària