IT was a mixture of smiles and tears as colleagues from Independent Living at Home in Hereford said goodbye to Chris Williams, one of its hardworking and dedicated support workers.

Independent Living at Home is one of the services within Services for Independent Living that provides support to people who need help but want to keep the independence of staying in their own home.

Mr Williams has worked for the business for more than 11 years, and he will be missed by the people he supports and by his team leader and other team members.

Elaine Powell, a team leader met him not long after he joined.

“I arrived to find this softly spoken ex-mechanic up a stepladder, wearing a pinny dusting cobwebs from the ceiling,” said Ms Powell.

“That has been my lasting first impression. We spent most of that first meeting just laughing together.

“Chris has always been an outstanding support worker. He was one of those people I could contact if I was on call and if he couldn’t help me himself, he always had an idea how to solve the problem.”

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There was a farewell lunch at which colleagues shared memories of working together,

“Chris has a great sense of humour and gets along with everyone,” said managing director Lisa Bradley.

“Over the years he supported many of our service users,  at least eight in my time, and always built a great rapport with them.”