Many years ago I used to work in the library of Teesside Poly (it's now the uni I'm studying at) as a sublibrarian. I had several assistants under me. One was called Georgie. She was in her late teens/early twenties, a dark-haired girl, very vivacious. She had a beautiful singing voice and her singing won her many prizes. She was slightly cheeky, but very well-liked. Eventually she became engaged to a young man called Bob Skingle. He was a photographer I believe, and also a folk-singer with a local folk-group called the Fettlers. I was a keen folk-singer and knew the Fettlers, or at least some of them from an earlier line-up. I didn't know Bob very well though.
Georgie started taking days off work, complaining off severe headaches. To be honest, it was a nuisance, as I had to try and cover her work. But I could see Georgie would become agitated when she had missed a day or two, so I tried to help her make her work easy to pick up and restart. I thought her headaches were migraines, or maybe stress brought on by her impending marriage. My boss Alma got very angry with Georgie's absences. One day she told Georgie off in front of the other assistants. I stood up for her, and got told off in turn.
I'm glad I stood up for her. Sadly, Georgie's headaches were caused by a brain tumour. The doctors operated on her, but it wasn't very successful. I heard that she had been left little better than a vegetable.
Not long after that I got a job in the South of England and moved, and lost touch with what had happened to her.
This weekend I went to the folk festival at Nature's world, just down the road from me. The MC for the afternoon was Stewart MacFarlane, one of the Fettlers whom I used to know. I introduced myself to Mac. It's a long time ago and I don't think he remembered who I was. I was a lot younger then and a lot slimmer!!!! I asked how the Fettlers were getting on. He mentioned Bob Skingle and his wife and children. I was puzzled at this. By all accounts, Georgie may well have died, and may well have been better off dead. Was this a second wife I asked. And told him I once knew a girl called Georgie.
Yes, it was a second wife. Mac retold Goergie's story, about Georgie's marriage to Bob (which I hadn't heard about), her brain tumour, and her operation. How she had grown very fat on the steroids. About the lovely voice she had once had. And how, eventually she had died.
A long time afterwards Bob met someone else. He remarried, and it was a happy marriage with children, and he, Mac, was their godfather. Mac said that Bob looked much older than his years - he had aged badly.
And so Mac and I remembered the girl with the fine voice, called Georgie.
Rembering Georgie
It's lovely when you can remember someone with so much affection, Northerner. I have heard of the Fettlers and Stewart MacFarlane (it's highly likely that I've also heard them, but my memory is atrocious now.)
Very sad that someone as vivacious and with so much to offer died at such a young age. Did you ever hear of Luke Kelly? He was the most fantastic folk singer (and a member of the Dubliners). He died of a brain tumour too, and tragically young. So, so sad.
Terri1948
Thank you Terri. Sadly Georgie is not the only friend I have lost to a brain tumour. A boy I grew up with also died of one as a young man, leaving a pretty young wife and two young sons. It's a dreadful illness.