On my side I have my sister Doreen, her daughter Ayla and her husband Chris and their two wee ones Leilani and Lochlainn – Doreen's son Sean and his wife Brandy.
My brother Joe and his wife Ligia – their son Joey and his wife Hannah, their daughter Christina and their youngest son Ian.
We considered ourselves lucky that we enjoyed being in the company of both our families, Nigel’s mum and dad lived in Glasgow and latterly in London with Nigel’s sister and her family – all my folks live in New York so when we got together, we made the most of it – there are so many wonderful memories – the rest of the time it was just the two of us and that was perfect too – he loved being at home – our happy place.
We had some amazing trips with Nigel’s mum and dad, May and Frank, who he fondly referred to as faither and the old dear – most years my mum Christine came home from New York to be with us for Christmas – very special times together – Nigel called my mum Gran which always made her smile.
Over the years we have enjoyed many celebrations, holidays, fishing trips, cruises and family weddings – the very best of times – and even more importantly they were all there for us when we were going through the worst of times.
There was super excitement when Leilani and Lochlainn came along – Nigel loved spending time with the kids – Ayla would send photos and films of the kids every week so we could see what they were up to – he loved them dearly – he was always chatting away to Leilani about something – to see the world through children’s eyes is a wonderful gift.
Our extended family – the team at P4P – we have been so lucky to have worked with some amazing people over the last 20 years – Kirsty who was with us from the very beginning – Vinnie who went on to run his own company, Andy who got married and set up home in Canada – Stuart who now runs his own film production company and Gordon who is now at Edinburgh University – these folks in the first 10 years helped build P4P to what it is today.
In recent years Craig, Ben and Fraser were instrumental in building the web side of our business – Craig and Ben still help us on various projects when required supporting Gunnar and Ray who are here in the studio.
Andrew has been with us for 15 years, Gary 9 years, Rebecca 7 years, Gregor 7 years, Gunnar for just over 3 years and Alison was with us part time for over 5 years – in the last 12 months Serena, Elayne and Ray have joined the P4P family.
It has always been important for us to find happy people – folks that have a passion for what they do and take a genuine pride in their work – team players who inspire and help each other – there has been a few mistakes over the years but thankfully not many!
P4P wouldn’t be what it is today without the help of all these wonderful people along the way – Nigel would say that it has been an amazing adventure with the team building this wee company – lots of laughter and sometimes tears – lots to celebrate – lots of debate and lots of excitement and most importantly lots of love and respect.
Nigel always had time for the youngsters – every year we would take on an intern and a couple of youngsters from school for work experience – he would spend hours with them and was happy to take them on site visits and photo shoots – they weren’t here to sit in a corner or make the tea – they were here to learn – to be inspired – and to experience what it is like to be part of the P4P family.
Nigel was so happy when we became employee owned in May 2017 – we would never have sold the company – the thought of someone else coming in and ruining everything that we had all worked so hard to achieve would have been unthinkable. We were looking forward to retiring in 2020 and then Covid hit – we carried on just the two of us in the studio and the team all worked from home – together we all got through the pandemic.
Thankfully the team are back now – the batten has now been passed – and with Andrew and Gary at the helm the P4P team will only go from strength to strength – a bright and wonderful future ahead.
We first met over 45 years ago when Nigel interviewed me at The Glasgow Herald and Evening Times in Mitchell Street – that was back in 1977 – in the days of black and white newspapers and the smell of hot metal.
We got together in 1990 – over the last 30 odd years we have rarely spent a day apart – life was never dull – we loved being at home, going on holiday, spending time with our family and for the last 22 years we have enjoyed building P4P together.
Like most folks we have had our share of life’s challenges – we were always grateful that we had each other for support – for us every day was a great day as long as we were together.
We finally tied the knot in May 2021 – it was just the two of us – the best day ever!
