Re: Ann Metcalfe

Jeanie Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:54 pm

Heywoodpp wrote:Most of the credit has to go to Ann. She knew exactly what she wanted and, although she made it clear that she hoped not to have to call on my services for a while longer, she still wanted to make plans. And her daughters and Alan knew her so well that they filled in any gaps.

One I wanted to say but didn't manage to fit in were about the way that, whenever I met her, as I came away, the day was somehow brighter and I felt better in myself.

I nearly blew myself up on the way back however. The still hot thurible (incense thingy) was in a metal bowl on the passenger seat floor of the car. As I drove down the narrow and winding Ashworth Rd I noticed a funny smell and looked down to see the cardboard cover of the large box of matches sitting underneath the thurible and beginning to smoulder. My instinct was to reach down to the well of the passenger seat which nearly sent me through the very fence that Ann had fought to get replaced!

Oh dear you would have sure been in serious trouble if you had hit that fence !!! but seriously well done you spoke as though you had known Ann all your life and that takes a lot of beating and makes it very personal to everyone who knew her.And She did have a special knack of brightening up anyone's day with her fantastic sense of humour and natural caring no nonsense attitude to life.

It's a good job I wasn't in your car with that (incense thingy) I would have had an asthma attack it set me of coughing as soon as you started swinging it Wink

Hinch Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:59 pm

I thought he looked a bit camp in that cape but when he started swinging his thingie in front of Jeanie I was reassured.

Charly Thu Mar 14, 2013 10:10 pm

Jeanie Thu Mar 14, 2013 10:33 pm

Hinch wrote:I thought he looked a bit camp in that cape but when he started swinging his thingie in front of Jeanie I was reassured.

Ann would be laughing her riding boots of at this Hinch x

Hinch Thu Mar 14, 2013 10:42 pm

Yes, as I wrote in my RO tribute, she had a very earthy sense of humour.

Quite unbecoming in a respected Tory councillor I thought.

Jeanie Thu Mar 14, 2013 10:47 pm

Hinch wrote:Yes, as I wrote in my RO tribute, she had a very earthy sense of humour.

Quite unbecoming in a respected Tory councillor I thought.

again She has had the last laugh thanks Hinch.

Time we had a curry night out now to raise a glass /2-3 for Her ?

past it Fri Mar 15, 2013 1:19 am

To say one enjoyed a funeral is a misnomer,however Ann Metcalfe's was one to savour. The setting alone was atmospheric, one half expected to see Heathcliffe come striding down the lane to snatch her up. The weather was challenging, to watch Emma, her daughter, deliver her address in the snow which was horizontal but remain unflinching was superb.
Ann had stage managed everything and got it just right. The band, the Holcombe Hunt who with due deference to PC blew "gone away" on a hunting horn as she was lowered was poignant. The wicker coffin and the grave alongside the wall next to the house was all about Ann.
The large crowd was testimony to the esteem she was held in and I am sure she would have loved every minute of it.

Hinch Fri Mar 15, 2013 7:51 am

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/78677/ann-metcalfe-small-notes-from-a-large-funeral

This poem was read at the funeral :-

WARNING

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Jenny Joseph

Hinch Wed Dec 11, 2013 7:04 am

Well, gone but not forgotten. On Sunday. I went up to Rough Lea and laid a Christmas wreath on her grave, watched by her beloved horses. It's the least I can do for an old pal and our first forum member to shuffle off into the Great Unknown.

Earlier in the year, I attended the unveiling of the Wishing Tree dedicated to her memory at the little park by Norden Bridge.

Spartacus Wed Dec 11, 2013 1:18 pm

Hinch wrote:Well, gone but not forgotten. On Sunday. I went up to Rough Lea and laid a Christmas wreath on her grave, watched by her beloved horses. It's the least I can do for an old pal and our first forum member to shuffle off into the Great Unknown.

Earlier in the year, I attended the unveiling of the Wishing Tree dedicated to her memory at the little park by Norden Bridge.

What a lovely thing to do, Hinch.

I think the tribute you wrote for Anne on Rochdale Online was possibly the best I have ever read. Made me wish I had known the lady, too.

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