The Last Chapter

8.30 sometimes 9pm. By this time we had a car each and the money was reasonably good, the difference in JBR’s and this, there was no comparison. But then the V.A.T. lady caught up with us and she virtually crucified us, we tried all the tricks in the book but she won in the end. The custom had dropped off around the same time, and it was getting to be a struggle, Marie and I had cut our hours to help. Eventually, I said to Tommy, we’ve got two alternatives here, either you go and get a job or I go on early retirement. There was no chance of Tommy getting out of that shop, so I retired in 1988. We left it to Tommy to carry on working the shop.

  In 1983 Tommy paid for us to go to Majorca, the first week we went to Alcudia with John Duggan, Jim Monaghan, Jimmy Abbott and Ronnie Hawkins. For the second week we went to Calla Mayor with Tommy, Bev and the two kids. Tommy came up in a hire car and took us down to where he was staying, it was different to the first week and we enjoyed it. One day we had a trip on the bus to Magaluf and the window was open, now I was losing my hair rapidly and with the window open it was blowing over to one side. Well Tracey thought it was hilarious and she had everyone on the bus looking at me, to say I was embarrassed is an understatement.

  Another time we went to Magaluf with the Echo so most of them were from Liverpool, we arrived about 4 – 5 in the morning and right away we were disappointed, the view was a load of bins. The following day we got another room, but the weather was rubbish, it rained for most of the holiday. I would not recommend Magaluf to anybody, it didn’t impress either of us.

  Around 1986 I joined the Litherland Male Voice Choir in the tenor section, I was really enjoying myself singing with these men, some excellent singers. They sang at our John & Vivien’s wedding at St Philips Church, Litherland, I was quite proud to be in the choir.

  I later joined the Aughton Male Voice Choir with Brian Blackshaw who was also in the Litherland Choir. Between the two choirs I sang in some notable venues, such as, Cardiff Arms Park (Welsh International Rugby Ground) with the world choir, 8,000 voices, the star of the show was Shirley Bassey. Other venues were The Festival Hall – Llangollen, Free Trade Hall – Manchester, Preston Guildhall, The Liverpool Philharmonic Hall 3 times.

  Jubilee Drive had 4 apple trees and a pear tree in the back garden, it was a nice garden. After 7yrs there our Anne told us there was a house in Denise Road being repossessed, we put in an offer of £14,000 for it and it was accepted. We sold Jubilee for a reasonable price and eventually moved up to 1 Denise Road. Although the house was only 7yrs old the house needed a lot of work doing on it, the back was a complete mess. The grass had overgrown over everything, including carpets and children’s toys, someone had come in and taken the paving stones away. There was a plain brick wall built right across the chimney breast in the living room, it was hideous. Our Tommy came in one Saturday morning and between us it was knocked down and all the bricks were put outside. Marie got Anne’s kids to work on them and clean them up so we could use them again. We did use them again we got a bricklayer to build a front garden wall and I made double gates with fences to go with it. The move to Fazakerley was good because we were only 100yds from our Anne. Later on John had moved to Edna Avenue which was about half a mile away. We’d been in the house about a year or so, when we decided we would like an extension on the back. We got a couple of estimates but we decided on a price Joe had given us, he was a friend of Doreen’s, Marie’s friend from their childhood. I did quite a lot of the work myself to keep the price down, the extra room was originally going to be a bedroom but has never been used as one, I use it now, for my paintings.

  My mother was finding it hard to look after herself in Ripon Street, so with her permission we managed to get her into sheltered accommodation in Park Street, Bootle. It was a lovely flat with all mod cons and a nice view outside. But she kept falling over, unless you can look after yourself reasonably well the people who run the places don’t want to know. So it was a case of where do we go from here. We found a Residential Home in the Orrell district and got her in there, it was run by a Mr Nevin and it was expensive. Her age was catching up with her now, and she was having trouble with her legs. She went into Fazakerley Hospital for treatment and when she was due out, we managed to get a room at Ennerdale Nursing in the hospital grounds. She was only there a week when we got a call to say she had passed away. Bobby and Anne had been into see her an hour before, I think she lost the will to live. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered on Plot 25 were we believe my dad’s ashes are at the crematorium at Anfield.

  The Litherland Choir finished up in the end, the numbers dropped down from 70 (before my time) down to around a dozen or so, they were either dying off or couldn’t get there, so it disbanded. The Aughton is still going but I am no longer a member, it’s a long story so I’ll just say “It was a matter of principle” and leave it at that.

  A little story before I finish with Choirs. The organiser of the “World Choir” told all the choirs who took part in Cardiff that the next one would be in Georgia (Atlanta City) with Ray Charles as the star. We all started to pay on a weekly basis, Marie had decided she was going so we were paying for two, we’d got up to £340. Between us. It turned out, we had all been conned and we did not get the money back. I believe the C.I.D and Interpol were looking into it, but to no avail. Win some, lose some!

  Over the years we’ve made a lot of good friends, through John Duggan we got to know, Jimmy Monoghan, Jim Abbott and both their wives Eileen and Rita. Ronnie Hawkins and Maisy, Arthur Haig and Lily his wife. We had some good holidays with them all, not only in this country but abroad, six of those I’ve mentioned are now dead.

  Another group were Marie’s friends from her childhood days, Doreen and her husband Frank and Jean and her husband, Marie and her husband Bill, and Anne and Derek. Doreen’s husband Frank had a large family, and we got to know them through the holidays we have had down on the South Coast. We went abroad with Doreen and Frank a couple of times and really enjoyed it.

  I have made a lot of friends through the Choirs and the Art classes, Brian Blackshaw and Harold Meakin are good friends from Litherland MVC , Brian encouraged me to join the art classes.

  Since I’d retired I got back into art which I’d always been keen on, I joined the Orrell Art Centre, I met Ray Ashcroft who was the art centre teacher. Ray later introduced me to the Aintree Artists, who accepted me as a member, which meant I could display my paintings for sale at various times of the year. Ray also encouraged me to join his class at the Knowsley Village Hall with certificates at the end of the course. Ray was replaced by Tony Harrison, which he wasn’t happy about, Ray died about 18 months after, with cancer and we all missed him. I carried on learning for 3 years and obtained my certificates, we were presented with them at St. Georges Hall.

  If someone had told me I would have a heart attack, I probably would have laughed at them, but that’s exactly what happened in February 1995. We had gone to the Strand shopping centre for shopping, I started to feel funny, pains in my chest and sweating, I knew it wasn’t right and told Marie we should go home. We made for the car and somehow we managed to get to the Copplehouse Medical Centre. They called an ambulance and got me to Fazakerley right away, after a series of tests I was put on a ward. They said I’d be in about a week, but I had a couple of Angina attacks, so they transferred me to Broadgreen Hospital where they done an Angiogram. This confirmed it was a heart attack, after they organised my medication they let me go home. Since then I’ve been in hospital twice with angina, I hope that’s the last time I’ll be in, the pills are for life I suppose.

  It’s a far cry to-day from our days in Gorsey Lane , when we were both young and reasonably fit. Me with my heart problem and arthritis and Marie with arthritis, restless leg, and other things, she is on medication for, she now uses a walking stick. We are both lucky, because our family are all very good to us both. We have been abroad on holiday with Tommy, Bobby, Anne and John over the years.
Now our grandchildren have got children and probably a few more before we go.

  The year I had my heart attack we went to Florida with Anne, Richie, Warren, Estella and Richard, it was a long journey but it wasn’t bad because there were films shown all the time. It was a nine hour flight, we landed in Maine, probably to refuel , then we went on to Kissimmee in Florida. We picked a vehicle up and Richie got in the driving seat and after some instructions we set off for the keys. After going around in circles for some time we eventually got to the Villa. The accommodation was brilliant, it had to be seen to believe it. We went to most of the theme parks each day and enjoyed them. It was well organised, the only let down was the weather it rained most of the time and for Florida it was not warm. Overall we all enjoyed the experience, we went to various places for a meal in the evening, and mostly they were very good. One day we wanted petrol and ended up in Orange County with black everywhere, we got out pretty quick. We seen the New Year 1996 in while we were there and unlike Liverpool there wasn’t a soul outside, not what we expected.

  We