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My question the other day about movies taking you back to a better place reminded me of an episode from my life, so I thought I'd share it. 21 years ago as a 21 year old I got myself into a few scrapes and I probably wasn't living the best life.......
One Friday night though, I was attacked at a taxi rank by 4 men. They beat the life out me, broke bones, ribs etc then picked me up and threw me through a shop window. I severed the main artery in my right arm and I was bleeding to death......
My mate who had been to the same party as me was passing and he held the wound tight until someone at the taxi rank had called an ambulance. I went to hospital and had emergency surgery on the wound. blood transfusions etc. It was bad....
I was in hospital for 3 days, and on night 2, I persuaded the nurse to let me go to the day room with my drips etc. It was late, and there was only one man in there. An old man. We chatted for hours. He gave me some worldly advice and he was a true gent...
While we chatted, we watched a film on the TV in the corner. The Molly Maguires. Really, we had a lovely peaceful night, there was about 50 years between us, but we bonded and laughed about stuff. He was great. I told him I'll see him in the morning.
I woke up the next day, and after an hour or so I asked the Nurse if I could go and sit with him. Terribly though, she said he'd died peacefully in the night in his bed. I was the last person to talk to him. His two daughters came to talk to me then, asked what we chatted about..
I told them how we got on, how he'd told me to behave myself and smarten up a bit, and how we laughed. That film always reminds me of him, in fact any film with Sean Connery or Richard Harris, I'll never ever forget that man or his family.
