One of the other thoughts fo Bolton Fm

    I finished my training as a minister and spent some time in Cheshire before moving to Bolton.   I remember being so nervous when I had to conduct my first funeral.    Luckily for me it was for a wonderful old gentleman who had had a very interesting life.   His family were so proud of him and spoke eloquently about his life and achievements.
    A few months later I had to visit the same family as the old gentleman’s wife, their mother had died.   What a contrast !  When I asked about her they said, ‘ Well there’s nothing really.   It was dad who was so special!’
    I felt stunned.
    Their Mum’s name was Beatrice - and her name means ‘Making Happy’
     And that is what she had done over all those years, quietly getting on with life, looking after her family, making them happy.
    She had cared for her wonderful husband, she had cared for the children and brought them all up without any fuss or bother.   She had been that person in the background who had quietly been the mainstay of the family.
    When we next met, the family remembered their Mum in a different way.   Yes she had indeed spent her life making sure they had been happy children and that they had lived in a happy home.   She had devoted her life to making them happy.
    It was a lesson to me too - never to say of anyone’s life that it was ‘nothing really’
    I am Tony McNeile, a Unitarian