Bill Worthington, resident of Ovacik and one of the founder members of the Fethiye Times Gardening Club, died suddenly on Sunday 17th December.

Bill and his wife Judy have lived in Ovacik for nearly 4 years and Turkey had become their home and their love.
 
Bill was born in Eccles, “near the Eccles cake shop” he would proudly add, in July 1939. He married Judy 1965, and for 30 years they lived in the Scottish village of Sandend. To begin with Bill worked on the fishing boats out of Peterhead. After injuring his back Bill had to rethink things and he changed his occupation to dairy farming. His back problem did not go away and pain was something that he had to learn to live with.
 
They have three children, Gillian, Sharon, (who managed to get a flight here in time to comfort her mother and attend the funeral) and Mark, they have seven grandchildren.

Judy and Bill had been coming here to Turkey for about 13 years, and, so often, when they went home after their holiday, things seemed dull and dark and miserable. And so it was, about 4 years ago, they decided that here was to be home from now on.

Bill had always loved nature and the outdoors life, but here he had the weather to take advantage of the glories and variety of the natural world more fully.

In Scotland his bad weather hobby was N gauge model trains and he had built a large layout complete with buildings he had made perfectly to scale.  He had brought this over here to Turkey in sections and was something he meant to reassemble but there just wasn’t enough bad weather!

His love of birds, nature and gardening were the overriding preoccupations of his life here, indeed he was a founding member of the Gardening Club, but these went side-by-side with his love for his family and the new ‘family’ of Turkish and British people he had found here. (He also loved a glass or two of Raki!)

Bill could be grumpy and stubborn, and he hated fuss; the way of his parting would have suited him perfectly. Medicines, hospitals and the consequences of an illness would have been intolerable. For those left behind, though it has deepened the tragedy of their loss.

The funeral took place on Thursday 21st December at the cemetery near to the petrol station in Ovacik, and many British and Turkish friends and neighbours attended. The service was led at the graveside by David Groom, who lives in Ovacik and included Islamic and Christian elements, with the participation of the Hodja from the mosque in Hisaronu.

Judy has been overwhelmed by the kindness and offers of help from Turkish and British neighbours alike and would like to express her sincere thanks.

Money given in lieu of flowers will go towards the maintenance and development of the cemetery.

Pictures of Bill's garden can be found here.