As this is my first column for about seven weeks it will be a very personal one and I would like to start by thanking the many hundreds of financial advisers and others in our great profession who have sent messages of condolence and support to me on the sudden loss of my beloved wife, Jennifer. We had shared 53 wonderful years together and, though her passing was very sudden and unexpected, it was at least peaceful.
Of course we are not the first to suffer such a loss and we will certainly not be the last, however I am afraid that this does not make it any easier to bear. Fortunately I am blessed with a close and loving family so we are determined to get through it together and emerge into what we are terming 'the new normal'.
Jennifer and I had been blessed not with just a loving family, but also opportunities to travel the world together. We had experienced everything from flying faster than a bullet on Concorde to strolling hand in hand on the beaches of Barbados and the Great Wall of China.
As long as we were hand in together, being together was all that mattered.Wonderful as our journeys were, as long as we were hand in hand together, whether we were walking on our favourite Yorkshire beach at Filey, around Huddersfield or just sitting in our own garden, being together was all that mattered.
I said at the outset that this would be a far more personal article than usual and I propose to close in similar vein. Not a day passed for Jennifer and I without our reaffirming our love for each other so that, while we had hoped for another 20 years together and sudden as her passing was, I can feel we were somehow settled and at peace.
Therefore, without in any sense trying to be patronising, I urge you to always tell those you love how much you love them whenever you see them. The reality is that a day will come when for you or for them there will not be another opportunity and in either your or their "new normal", the chance will have gone forever.
Lastly, imagine the power for good this message could have if you were to extend it to your clients whenever an appropriate opportunity arose and I would like to hope you might give it a try.
Ken Davy is chairman of SimplyBiz
