Gary Strachan – "Write" Said Fred
Whimsical observations from deep within an erratic mind
I initiate this revue litteraire perched amongst lunchtime patrons of a shopping centre coffee shop. Adjacent to me in this south Leeds cafe sits a woman who's audibly raucous diatribe about a friend (to other friends) is ranted with almost Hitleresque vigour..... Quite clearly, she won't be as evil as Hitler but after witnessing this... Continue Reading →
Preferring to use established data as a source when making decisions/judgements, I'm a fella who ordinarily embraces scientific reasoning above the spiritual. A mantra which leaves me unsure what to believe regarding what, if anything, the afterlife has in store after we shuffle off this mortal coil. I raise this subject as my uncertainty about... Continue Reading →
In an highly emotive and sad week, they were the first tears of joy I'd witnessed for a while. The water welling in my little lab/retriever buddy Coco's eyes those borne from sampling the Guinness Beef Casserole I'd made for her mum Sam and my tea. My canine chum'll admittedly trough anything and, if truth... Continue Reading →
Day four of middle-aged orphanhood following my mother's passing on Sunday. The matriarch leaving this vale of tears to join my father, whose own death preceded his beloved wife of 57 years four winters previously. Of course, becoming an orphan in your fifties is nowhere near as stark as in childhood. That being said, despite... Continue Reading →
Aside from a sporadic sob emanating from daughter Rachel in the front passenger seat of my car, yesterday's 20 minute journey from my mother's care home to Rach's east Leeds residence was undertaken in near silence. Two hours in the company of our moribund family matriarch, who's now barely able to communicate verbally, appearing to... Continue Reading →
As I begin this chronicle I’ve just returned into my mothers care home room after vacating it while nurses undertook the matriarch's personal care. While standing out in the corridor, adjacent to Maggie’s chamber, Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s emotive hymn Pie Jesu played out from a neighbouring resident’s room. The refrain’s celestial nature, incorporating prayers to a... Continue Reading →
"I spy with my little eye; something beginning with B." A challenge presented by my mum from her hospital bed to her grandson (my adult son Jonny) two evenings ago. Despite being on an end of life pathway following the discovery of multiple brain tumours, grandma using an impromptu game of 'I Spy' to display... Continue Reading →
Around midday yesterday the opening verse of Jimmy Osmond's 1972 hit 'Long Haired Lover From Liverpool' rang out in a West Yorkshire hospital ward for elderly ladies. Although memory didn't afford its performers with full lyric recollection any voids were filled with chirpy and reasonably melodic "La, la, la." substitutes. What the room's other five... Continue Reading →
Circumstances of recent days have dictated I've had neither the time or inclination to pen a blog of late; and with far greater events requiring my attention, if truth be told, that lack of inclination still lingers large. In fact, the only reason I've chosen to chronicle current life events is as a distraction from... Continue Reading →