About Nick

This is my brother, Nick.  The photo was taken in the summer of 1999.   Nick was a highly creative and imaginative person.  He loved to read and write poetry and also loved art.  He taught himself to program on his PSION 3a computer and wrote a game for it called Meteor when he was 14.  Nick was hoping to become an illustrator, and produced an extensive portfolio during his A level art course, and his art foundation course. Nick was very close to his family, and had a happy life at home.  Considered unusual at school, Nick had two close friends, Joseph and Shakheel, but made many more friends when he left school and started at West Herts College, and then again when he began his degree course at Anglia Polytechnic University in Cambridge.

Nick had a highly developed and unique sense of humour - a love of the absurd.   This is clearly reflected in his poetry and many of his paintings and doodles.  He was considerate and thoughtful, and often pondered deeply topics ranging from politics to morals to science.

Sadly, Nick died on January 6th 2000, from a rare cancer.  During his last few months Nick received wonderful support from our Macmillan Nurse, Geraldine, and many Marie Curie Nurses, and also the Middlesex hospital where he was treated.

 This is what Nick's cousin, Charlie has to say about Nick:

           " There are people in life that we meet, and almost as soon we do, we immediately begin to feel closeness to. Nick Stansfield was one of these people. I did not get to see Nick nearly as much as I would have liked to, but only because we lived approximately 3,000 miles apart. This did not however affect our friendship as one might expect that it would. Nick and I kept up our friendship over fairly regular emails, as well as conversations over the phone. The distance never mattered much – we could always talk to each other for hours on end, and share a common sense of humor. When we did finally see each other, which was about once or twice a year, it was a cause for celebration. In fact, Nick wrote a program on his palmtop computer that would calculate to the minute when the flight would arrive. Often on the very night we arrived, we would stay up almost all night together, just talking for hours. A midnight feast was often included. Nick and I shared many of the same interests – we would both spend hours on the computer, we listened to similar music (which we both downloaded), and we had a similar sense of humor. But there was more to our friendship than that. Ever since we first met, there was a bond between Nick and I. We knew each other so well that we were almost like brothers. There was always a mutual respect and understanding between us, one that is not shared by most people.

            Nick as an individual was one of the most caring and admirable people I have ever met. He would always take an interest in what you were doing, and was always great to talk to. In addition to this, Nick was a great artist and poet. His pictures are, in a word, incredible. Even when we were very young I was always amazed with the effort and detail Nick would put into every picture he drew. His style changed as he grew older, but the pictures only became richer. Nick wanted to become an illustrator, and I believe without a doubt that he would have met and exceeded his goal. Poetry was another of Nick’s talents. His poems ranged from the serious to the absurdly funny. They were always great to read, and they were brilliantly constructed. Nick had some very interesting philosophies of life itself, which are evident in some of his poems. Some of Nick’s philosophies, I believe, are years ahead of his time and show incredible maturity and deep thinking on his part.

            There is much more that can be said about Nick. It is impossible for me to say everything that I feel about him, simply because there is so much. I’m sure I speak for everyone that knew him when I say that I am not nearly over his tragic death. But in a way I also feel privileged. I am so glad that I had a cousin like Nick, and I feel so lucky to have known him in the way that I did. Nick will be dearly missed."