As most of you will know Helen my dear wife of nearly 44 years passed away on Christmas Day 2016 and what followed was six months of darkness, loneliness and absolute hell, poorly controlled by foreign travel to England, Malta, Morocco, France, Belgium and Italy. Travel I thought might help […]
Retirement
Fresh Lonely Air In Manchester – Part 4
My sojourn in Manchester is slowly coming to an end, two and a half days of authority induced mayhem whilst they arrest every man with a slight hue, give him a cup of tea, ask him how he is then release him. It is musical chairs time in Manchester Police […]
Fresh Lonely Air In Manchester – Part 3
After the bomb in central Manchester interrupted my advent into the city of my birth, I have settled down to write. What would have been a blog about finally coming to grips with my grief in the city where we courted and raised our family, is now an episodic story […]
Fresh Lonely Air in England – Part 2
I landed at Manchester Airport expecting tight security but saw nothing, it was possibly all centered in central Manchester where the explosion had happened 24 hours earlier. Thoughts of Helen had been overtaken by circumstances but Daughter 3 was dutifully awaiting as I walked out of the terminal to a […]
Fresh Lonely Air In England – Part 1
It is now 148 days since Helen died. I am off to England for a day or two to celebrate the 90th birthday of a very active lady. The question I have asked myself time and again is why. 67 is young these days, Helen had always been fit and […]
Morocco – Renewal Progressing Part two of this posting
I am at the start of my 2nd week of renewal, I find myself stronger but there is a fuzziness at the back of my head and I think that will be there for a long time. We were up early that Saturday morning and we went off to the […]
Morocco – Renewal Renewed. Part 3 of this posting
The heat, the dust, the goodness of the people, the greenery, the gris, M Ricard, the regimented chaos of Marrakech have all dragged me out of my ennui and tristesse. I am pretty much a new man. It is Day 11 of my trip and everybody is back at school […]
A Trip To Malta
Helen, my wife, had died on Christmas Day 2016. The late winter and early spring of 2017 were real hard days for me but by April the corona of light that signifies the end of the tunnel, the dispenser of gloom and despair was growing larger by the week. Helen […]
Helen Patricia Teresa Malpas nee Towey
She died at 5.30pm on Christmas Day 2016 in an isolated single room in the Women’s Medical Ward of Sligo Hospital. 43 years and 252 days after our “I wills” were said on St Patrick’s Day 1973. 43 years and252 days of hard work, six kids, much happiness, some sadness, […]
A 21st Century Comedy of Errors
The main players in this incident packed story are Dr Kathleen Finan, medical consultant at Sligo General Hospital, Dr Una Clyne, urological consultant at Sligo General Hospital and Dr Kilian Walsh, urological consultant at Galway University Hospital. There are two separate scenes, Sligo University Hospital ( now referred by SGH) […]