Del Boy never marries. He has had many girlfriends, a fact that is the subject of numerous sarcastic comments by Rodney. He finally meets his partner Raquel Turner (whom he calls his "significant other") in the 1988 special "Dates". Del's mother Joan dies on 12 March 1964, apparently after a long string of illnesses. His lazy father Reginald leaves three months later (on Del's 16th birthday), taking most of their money and even Del's birthday cake. This leaves the teenage Del as the family's sole breadwinner, looking after his grandfather and Rodney, his half-brother who was born around thirteen years after him
Raquel Ilonbé Raquel Ilonbé Raquel Ilonbé, pseudonym of Raquel del Pozo Epita (1938–1992), was an Equatoguinean poet and author, who wrote in Spanish. She was born in Spanish Guinea (today Equatorial Guinea), on the island of Corisco, to a Guinean mother and Spanish father. In her infancy, she moved to Burgos, Spain. See studied music and poem recital at the Madrid Royal Conservatory. She only returned to Equatorial Guinea later in life after she had married, and made several unhindered personal trips during the time of Francisco Macías Nguema. She died in Madrid in 1992. Her first major published work was "Ceiba",