by P. Spalding click here for LinkedIn profile.

This week I became the oldest male descendent in our line following the cremation of my father. Owing to the serious nature of some of my own medical conditions I am at present in hospital; on my twenty fourth day. My first hospital stay in 57 years since I was born at Newmarket maternity hospital which is now a non-emergency community hospital.

On first meeting my father would invariably draw everybody’s attention to the fact that he had Ankylosing Spondylytis. This is a type of incurable heritable arthritis ALS or ankylosing spondylitis https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ankylosing-spondylitis/. It is now apparent my grandfather may have suffered from the same condition and died at the age of 50, an event that happened a few weeks before I was born 57 years ago in November 1966 (England had already won their first World Cup). An event that was indelible in it’s effect on my family history according to my Aunt. My father was convinced for many years that he too would die at 50 years old. On Tuesday at the age of 82 after a long extension of life expectancy he joined my mother, who herself suffered from a relatively well talked about but not well understood disease, Motor Neurone Disease (MND). As the long term carer for both over the last 8 years, I have had a lot of experience of the excellent care provided by Addenbrookes or the Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) system. I am writing this on Sunday the 13th October 2024.

Before 1307 and the arrest of the Knight’s Templar on Friday 13th October 1307, thirteen was not allegedly considered to be an unlucky number. A good conspiracy theory always useful in today’s internet/blog driven world as a good hashtag to promote your wider message. This wider message included some of the local good works my father became involved with post diagnosis of ALS which is a late onset disease or not at all. The random genetic component.

So what did my father do with those extra 32 years? As a local Electrical Engineering business business only he paid for his own apprentices deeming the YOP/YTS to be not fit for purpose. Expensive for his business. Although it was a family business as I was often there when apprentices did not turn up for weekend shut downs. Safety updates involving COSHH usually fell into my lap pre-Sunday lunch (a MSc in Crop Protection and the position of Head of Science and IT at a local school adequate training I believe ). Napoleon was wrong about the British being a “Nation of Shopkeepers”, we are a nation of small businesses that are usually no more than 5 people. We work well as a team.

In one of those team building exercises with new bosses, I was put on the spot to say something unique about myself. My reply was very on point for a school in that I was “the first in my father’s family to go to University.” A few years later a fundraising letter arrived from South Bank University. Dad was a little bit puzzled. His indentured electrical engineering apprenticeship included day release courses at South Bank Polytechnic. So with the begging bowl he had made the alumni list and was technically the first to go to university in our family. We were amused by his new found “graduate/alumni” status.

One of Dad’s other interest for many years was the Secretary of the Haverhill (Steeple Bumpstead) RNLI. Haverhill. The Chairman Dave Sissons left enough in his will for an inshore lifeboat to be provided at Hunstanton. Again another example of without the basic medical support that my father received from the NHS and CUH for his ALS Haverhill would not have a lifeboat.

The bridge over the Colne Valley. This is shown where if you turn left you pass the house where my parents lived for 55 years of a 57 year marriage. Both of these figures will rarely be seen nowadays. This view Dad captured in a mozaic as part of a U3a art project. The U3a being an interest of both my father’s and mothers but more of this life long learning experience another time.

In support of this ever present in the background providing a steadying hand was my mother.That is until MND robbed her of her speech and eventually her life, again care being provided by CUH. They had two children, myself and my sister. Unfortunately owing to my health issues which have just been recognised (I am like a lot of men and do not go near the doctor until it too late) the burden of sorting out the funeral fell on my sisters’ shoulders. According to my Aunt (father’s sister) I would have been very proud of how she organised everything. Family pulling together.

If you would like to make donations to the

RNLI Click here

MND Click here

ALS Click here

CUH Click here