Sunday, January 23, 2011
Michael Heggarty ~ A Legend Lost .....
Town has just become a poorer place. I was in there, yesterday, and heard of the death of Michael Heggarty. It's hard to express how I feel. Town will never be quite the same again now. There'll be no chance of seeing Michael there.
Michael was a fucking Legend. Totally and completely shot to fucking pieces. The guy only had to walk into a bar for the locals to start grinning behind their hands. Even just the sight of him could set people off.
People who'd known him all their lives too. Because they recognised there was no telling what Michael was going to come out with next. (See Here)
I never did get a photo of Michael. God, how I wish I did! He looked something like " Frazer " ('We're all Doomed, Captain Mainwering!') crossed with the mad prof from " Back to the Future ".
He had the wild hair and the wild stare. Long, loose limbed bloke. They reckon he'd work through a nuclear strike. Employ him to dig a hole and he'd dig that fucker until it was dug.
Wouldn't matter if it pissed with rain. He wouldn't even stop for a tea break. He'd be drenched through to the skin. Shovelling more water than earth. But he Would Not stop working. Known for it.
Known for his sacks too. Mad fucker. Always had his sack or two. Always tied up at their necks. Sometimes one. Sometimes two. Fuck knows what was in them. I asked Mike about them, day I heard the news;
" What the Fuck did he keep in those damn sacks, Mike? " I asked. " Everything. " came the answer. Mike probably knew Michael all his life. I just accepted that answer. Always will.
Anyway, there it is. Michael's dead. And the entire damn world is a piss poorer place without him. Guy was a fucking legend. A Character. I always told people; " Come here? Ye've got to see Michael Heggarty! ". Like the Colosseum, in Rome. Now he's gone.
It was cancer, by the way. I'm not sure, but; I think I heard he was originally diagnosed some time (years?) ago. What ever. Seems he refused any treatment ~ what's the fucking point, one may well ask!
Then, he was whisked into hospital. He'd never raised a word of complaint to Anyone. No one had a clue he was sick.
So, he was taken to hospital. Inside the space of Nine Days, he'd gone from being admitted to hospital. Shifted out to the Hospice.Then he was gone.
Town will be a hollow place without him.
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Always a sad moment when a small place looses one of it's characters. I don't know if it's a sign of the times, but very few 'new' characters seem to emerge over the years as we loose the old ones. I come from an old seaside town that used to have many such characters dotted about the harbour and in the pubs, and they are almost extinct now. Old retired fishermen, and the 'old men about town' who rarely ventured outside the town limits have been replaced by city dwellers who have moved in to retire or to make money via the tourist trade. I always feel that when we loose one of these old boys, the town looses part of it's soul, the very essence of which makes it beloved to it's locals.
ReplyDeleteRIP Michael.