Month: January 2016

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Made in Oldham

Clothes tag

It has been a rotten start to the new year. Loosing lifelong friends is never easy, and add to that loosing the hero’s from your youth its enough to make a person give up but I am from Oldham and that is not an option.

Now according to the rest of the British Isles I come from an insignificant windswept town in the northwest of England but to me it is the best place on the planet.

Many people in the town and central government think that Oldham is a town that has had its day and that hope has all but gone. I have news for you, as a town we may be down but are definitely not out.

People from Oldham are a rare bread, it matters not a jot what colour, religion or belief system you belong to you kick one of us you kick us all.

Winston Churchill started his political career in the town, Anne Kenny the linch pin of the suffrage movement was born here, we are strong and in spite of the current government we will survive.

On this small blue planet that we are a part off we all like to think that our own little part of the world will never ever change, that we are all part of some great master plan which someone has carefully thought out. I have no interest in that belief.

I meet people everyday that make things happen and often not because of financial gain but because they can and have belief that people no matter how insignificant they think they are make a difference.

So even though I have been stopped in my tracks by loosing people who I really cared about I will pick myself up and dust myself off and try to make a difference in the town I call home.

Oldham is a town that over the years has kept me and my family safe,. Its allowed me to raise my family in a place which I think is beautiful, not because of architecture or environment but because the people in this town care, they are passionate about were we live and look out for each other no matter what the world throws at us.

So after this patriotic venting I will leave you with the thought. I live in the town who invented the chip so it can’t be all that bad can it, there are far worse things to be remembered for.

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I am Heartbroken

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Sheila and Ollie

Another year has arrived and for the first time ever in my existence I am heartbroken, only five days in and I am hoping that this isn’t the start of what is to come.

I have been brave over the past couple of months because a close friend of mine has been fighting a battle which is very hard to win.

You may remember that my close friend Sheila, who had been fighting Leukaemia for the past year unfortunately lost her battle the other day and all that I can say is that I am devastated.

My wife Ann has taken this particularly hard because they were so close and that is even harder to bear because there is nothing I can say or do that makes it any easier.

Sheila was one of those people who you meet in life who is unique, she was a one off, calm, never judged and never complained about anything.

She was brilliant and like many people on this planet who are often overlooked was unassuming, funny and above all kind.

All the qualities I love and respect and in this world we live in I find that this it is quite unique.

I am dreading the funeral because I know I will not be looking a what she achieved but what I have lost. I know that her family will be hurting far more than I but that does not make it any easier to bear.

Tonight I looked at a message on my phone and what I saw was probably the most uplifting heartbreaking image I will ever see.

I think that getting old is a challenge and bits stop working and we get a little set in our ways  but the bit I can’t quite get my head around is that you loose the people who are closest to you and you are left with a huge hole in your life and that is almost an unbearable emptiness that almost overwhelms you.

So all that remains to be said that is I hope that Sheila has eventually found peace after a hard struggle and I wish that her family find comfort in the fact she has gone to a better place.

I only hope that whatever god they follow offers them some comfort in the coming weeks and months that are to come and they can look back with warm affection with the time they spent with Sheila.

I know Ann and I after the initial shock and sadness eventually will.