26th Jan 2002 , 20 years ago today
was when my dad died
I screamed like a puppy dog being beat with an iron bar
for an hour
mum had died in the marriage bed 5.5 years before
despite my brother doing CPR
8 weeks later, he happened to be home
he heard dad fall out of bed in the next room
the same room
my brother saved dad with CPR
dad went on to live 5.5 years more
despite being given just a week to live
and us picking hymns for his funeral
You read more online somewhere
Padre Pio and Me maybe
I visited dad every single day for 3 years
and he lived a couple of years more
I got wed and we had a baby
now doing BioChem at University
another girl turned up 2 years later
after dad was buried
So what can I say
The Love, the Strength, the Hope
never stated but there like the Mountains in County Kerry
where my Blacksmith dad came from before Birmingham
they were always with me
Ave Maria happens to have kicked in on my Music selection
Dad was too busy working up to 16 hours day at
The District Iron and Steel Brasshouse Lane Smethwick
he'd do to a late Mass on Sundays
I could say oceans more
He actually had bought his Thomas Cook ticket for England
When his sister Mary in Chicago sent him money for America
So the tale goes
That's why I'm here and not in America
But he was like a brother to Mum's brother who did live in Boston, USA
And me and Dad were more like brothers than father and son
because I spent most time talking to him, as I was the youngest son
And 5 of 6 was my place in the family
When I wrote The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker
mum and her 3 sisters was obviously Mrs Murphy with Julie Walters in my head too
if ever it were turned into a film
My dad I loved too much to put him in the book
But when I finished the book I realised that Big Sid the Butcher
the love inside him was really my dad, though Roy Kinnear was the
idea for any filmed version
But I only realised afterward that Big Sid was my dad
A pure and simple love, though dad was very intelligent, not like the
character in the book
Casey one day you will hang said dad's teacher in the 1920s
Irony was the 4 of the 6 of use were teachers
So my dad is in me, and always will be
Because he made me
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