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By Talisker
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04 January 2008 |
A young man dies of heart failure on a football pitch amidst the fray of the game. Captain of a Premier League team he was (Motherwell).
Not far away, a slightly older man reminisces of the much younger lad who pulled on the blessed hooped shirt. Clumsy, ugly, all energy and heart.
Then, in preposterous counterpoint, a sports journalist on the radio phrases what is to himself, a very valid and appropriate epitaph...
Phill O'Donnell RIP
29.12.07
I loved Phil O’Donnell
He encapsulated the dream;
a lanky, gangly, spotty lad,
all arms and legs and heart.
They buried him today
under winter’s first snow
and the radio man said it
“a true box to box player”
Oli 04/01/08
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Written by Fledermaus (3306 comments posted) 4th January 2008 | | Good poem Oli. A bit short, but powerful. |
Written by audrie (451 comments posted) 4th January 2008 | Different people react to death differently, and no doubt some of them would like to cut their tongue's out after some inappropriate remark.
You are keeping him in peoples' minds,Oli. | Box to Box
Written by embro (126 comments posted) 4th January 2008 | He will be remembered by many with admiration and affection. Such a tragedy that his dream ended this way.
embro |
Written by Phil (6730 comments posted) 4th January 2008 | I couldn't help but smile when I read this, Oli. Either his little slip has been missed by everybody but you and Me - or I have a sick mind.
What hope the rest of us - tubbies and unfit?
Liked it. If you can't smile at a funeral, where can you? (A serious point.)
Phil | I applaud
Written by Talisker (1326 comments posted) 4th January 2008 | All the genuine grief an condolences. I DID love the guy.
What this is about though is a silly pun, unnoticed by the punner (box=coffin), which for me underlines the fundamental humour of death.
Well done Phil - you got it 100% - grave humour, that's all, not at all worthy.
Oli  |
Written by Josie (2785 comments posted) 4th January 2008 | | Earth to earth, dust to dust and, very true, box to box. I hope you all have a laugh at my funeral - no miserable faces for me! (Not planning anything quite yet though). |
Written by petetheverse (164 comments posted) 4th January 2008 | It's all been said.
Some years ago I was asked to say a few words at the funeral of a colleague from work who was very much admired; he was a true gentleman.
In the sense that he always had a word for everybody (not always good, mind!). But he respected everyone for their own beliefs, and likewise. But he would never have recognised himself as a gentleman - would have shied away from such a term.
He was an ordinary, hard-working guy from Salford; he had a heart attack driving home from work, and having called at a customer's on the way to deliver a package - all part of his ethos - his last words were, "I think you'd better call me an ambulance, cock."
What an epitaph for a truly honest life.
So when I spoke - and there were a huge number of people there, bursting out into the surrounding cemetery - it was a humbling experience to be able to make his family laugh, to make the congregation weep, and then for all of us to laugh again, before he was laid to rest.
It was the way, I hope, that he would have wished to go out - in a burst of applause (mentally) for everything that he had meant to all those people who gave up their mornings to celebrate his life.
God bless you Brian - and God bless Motherwell, so to speak, and all those who have mourned.
PTV |
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