Where to begin, Calvin was an utterly beautiful soul. He was loved and cherished by so many people, he blessed so many around him. I had the very privilege of calling him, my cousin for twenty wonderful years. 

I will never forget playing a game we all created at our Granny and Granda’s house in Aberdelghy called chases! It is the sweetest memory I have of all of my cousins and me together. Our Granda would run around the garden trying to capture us all and put us in ‘jail’ but he would always miss a few and they would get sent to save the others and he could never catch Calvin, it would always be Calvin coming to rescue all of his cousins before Granda panda could catch us. We would all shout and cheer him on, with such glee and excitement on our faces. 

I’ll always remember as a child when Calvin was asked to be a mascot (if I’m correct) for the Scottish rugby team I was so proud of him and literally told everybody at my school and whenever I think of rugby I think of Calvin and his passion for it. Whenever the six nations were on and Scotland were playing against anyone I felt myself always rooting for them because of Calvin, but of course not if it was Scotland vs Wales as I’ve gotta root for my team haha.

This leads me to one of my all-time favourite trips we all went on for my auntie Ruths 50th Birthday to Galashiels. It was the time of year for the Autumn internationals, I remember sitting watching them with my uncle Brian and Calvin, it was lovely. It was such a blessing able to spend some quality time together and eat as a big family. 

My next memory was when I came to visit Ruth, Brian, Calvin and Eva, my family, back in 2018 for a week of nursing placement and I look back on this visit with such fond memories. I got to really know the young man Calvin had grown up to be, compassionate and loving. Although we didn’t get to see one another often I was always comfortable in his company. When I first saw him it felt like I was meeting up with a long lost friend he just embraced me on the stairs so lovingly into a bear hug and asked me how I was, I’ll always cherish that moment. Even the smallest things I loved about him it may sound silly but my mum had given me some money to buy my auntie Ruth some gin for her birthday as it was coming up and I wasn’t old enough yet to buy the alcohol so I had asked Calvin if he could go into the shop for me and buy it but there was none there and he was just so apologetic to me, he always cared for others and put them before himself.

My most recent memory of my cousin Calvin was when my mother, sister and I came up to Edinburgh for New Year’s Eve in 2019, I’m so glad I got to see Calvin again and just give him a big hug. It’s devastating he’s not here with us all on earth but I just know that he is partying in heaven with Jesus!!! No longer in any pain or hurt, as it says in Revelation 21:4 “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. As all of these things are gone forever.” I’ll always love and remember you Calvin love, Shannon.

“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” - Matthew‬ ‭11:28‬ ‭