John Evans was the grandfather of Adele, spouse of Rose Evans, and father of Mark Evans. After Mark had split with Penny Adkins, Adele's mother, John had expressed interest in helping to raise Adele despite the split. When asked about her grandfather, Adele stated, "He just loved my mum and because my dad wasn't in her life they completely took her over as their daughter."
Mark has also stated that he believes John was Adele's most significant role model:
| “ | I think my dad was Adele's most significant role model. They spent a lot of time together, just the two of them. Adele would spend much of the summer with my parents and most of that time my dad would be playing with her, talking her, showing her the sights. [1] | ” |
Adele later stated that "I painted him as this Jesus figure in my life." [1]
Adele also has stated that one of the days in her life she wishes she could relive is during John's final days, when she visited him in the hospital. She admitted that she was very "uncomfortable" with the fact that he was dying. She added that she took his wheelchair and went up and down the hospital corridors because she could not face the fact that the "love of [her] life" was dying. "I wish that I'd just kind of sat with him on the bed and given him a cuddle and told him how much I loved him, but I was just too overwhelmed." [2]
John died at the age of 57 from bowel cancer, leading Mark into alcoholism; a tragic breakup he experienced and the loss of his best friend to a heart attack further drove him to alcoholism. Adele had been utterly distraught after the loss of her grandfather, and this was the main factor in damaging the relationship between Adele and Mark. [3]
In an interview with i-D, Adele opened up about her relationship with her grandfather and how she coped with his death, saying, "I loved him so much, more than the world. My grampy and my nana had always been my ideal relationship—ideal friendship, companionship, everything. Even though I'm sure there's loads of shit I don't know about, as their granddaughter it was bliss, just heaven. I was so, so sad." She went on to state that his death originally inspired her to pursue a career as a heart surgeon because she wanted to "fix people's hearts." [4]
Adele reportedly considered naming her son, Angelo, after John, but ultimately decided not to for unknown reasons. [5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Adele: The Biography, pg. 4 - 5 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "AdeleBio" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqKL3vES8bo
- ↑ Adele: The Biography, pg. 17 - 18
- ↑ http://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/world-exclusive-adele39s-first-interview-in-three-years-us-translation
- ↑ http://www.noise11.com/news/adele-baby-name-finally-revealed-20130125