John Ward pays tribute to wife Maureen in his latest Ward’s World column

Columnist John Ward pens a powerful tribute to his wife in his latest Ward’s World column…

Those who read this column last week may recall I described my encounter with a lady outside a hospital entrance when I used a red coloured serviette to blow my nose.

She thought I had a bad nosebleed and the ensuing confusion that caused.

The reason for being outside the Boston Pilgrim hospital was to visit my ‘other half’ who had been admitted by ambulance early that morning - she had serious breathing problems - hence ringing the emergency services.

The response was swift from the initial phone call to the ambulance arriving so I cannot fault it - and more so the care from Jim and his colleague they gave to ‘er indoors’ Maureen, better known as Mo, on the initial home visit and the journey to Pilgrim.

From that Thursday morning when it happened to the following Wednesday the medical staff performed wonderfully giving their best attention to her as we as a family thought she was ‘picking up’ following the treatment given.

Sadly the phone call on Thursday afternoon, a week to the day she was admitted, was to explain that her condition had worsened overnight.

Mandy, daughter and I, had left her bedside the previous evening but were now advised to ‘get over as soon as possible’ as her condition had deteriorated.

It came as a complete shock.

Getting there with little time to spare we were both by her bedside to hold her hands as she made her final journey from us as an era had closed.

My family and I have lost a really wonderful, caring, funny little lady who had made my life complete over the past seventeen years as well as her friends who will miss her.

Mandy has lost her mother, her children, a grandmother,

I do hope this doesn’t sound morbid - I am often asked by readers how I find the ideas I scribble about here as they are usually considered ‘upbeat’ - so this might address that question as I explain the following.

A fair amount has happened while she was there with me when assorted events have happened that I have described in this column - I knew by her eyebrows bobbing up and down, no words said, that she felt this was ideal column material.

However Mo and I being of a certain age the question of ‘going forward’ had cropped up in recent times with my response being I would ‘go first but once there, have a look round then I would get back’ by whatever means, to let her know how good or bad it was.

She merely smiled as usual as she said, if that being the case she hoped she was at home when I ‘got back’.’

I did say she was a funny little lady with a wicked sense of humour - her response was as expected so we left it at that.

I am not being flippant but expressing our humour and our mindset as to why we stayed so long together as we laughed a lot along the way - worked for us in more ways than I can ever explain.

True we had our ups and downs like most couples do and this is just a part of normal life.

One memorable moment was when we were on holiday in Germany a few years ago.

We had entered the hotel lift for the first time on day one but as the numbers on the keypad were a bit well worn, we went up, then down, then up again until we eventually found our floor.

She also chipped a fingernail in the process.

As I now find myself in this present situation, one thing is noticeable in that our home has now become a house .

The loving, caring spark that made it a home has now faded but saying that I do have some amazing and wonderful memories that I don’t need a scrapbook to put them in.

Once again I am not being mawkish - don’t do mawkish - but merely explaining things as I have found them during this period.

Since this has happened over recent times we as a family have been touched by the messages and comments received from those who have since learnt the news of her passing.

It’s not the best time of the year for such happenings, it never is at any time, as we were about to write our Christmas cards to friends which I usually signed ‘from me and mo’ so it will be a basic ‘from me’ which will sound rather hollow this year.

I am now in the process of sorting this and that, each item a memory, that Mo owned or cared for but overall she left us peacefully and much loved for which we as a family will be forever grateful.

While she was perhaps small in stature, she had a big heart.

Thank you, Mo