Nov 20, 2024 | Family Matters, The Main Blog
I’m not usually a fan of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! but I’m making an exception at the moment. My wife and eldest daughter enjoy the show, so it was thanks to them that I saw the extraordinary footage of Barry McGuigan talking to his campmates about the loss...
Nov 10, 2024 | Family Matters
Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day are annual national moments of reflection, during which those who gave their lives while serving in the United Kingdom’s Armed Forces are honoured. Virtually every family has a ‘war story’. My maternal family has at least two, one...
Nov 21, 2021 | Family Matters
A year ago today, our beautiful third child, Josie Jean, was born sleeping at Liverpool Women’s Hospital. I wrote about her short, tumultuous journey in this space a few days after the event. Today, I want to mark her first heavenly birthday by writing about her. You...
Nov 25, 2020 | Family Matters
I’d like to tell you the story behind a tweet which was sent out late on a Saturday night but has had a far greater impact than I could ever have imagined. This is the tweet: Josie Jean Coates was born sleeping at 18.35 today, at 21 weeks gestation. She had an...
Sep 22, 2020 | Family Matters
Our family recently got a little smaller, following the passing of my Great Uncle, Norman Raw. Uncle Norman lived to be 100 years old and celebrated the milestone as a guest of Middlesbrough Football Club, who provided the image above. The notice that appeared in his...
Jul 31, 2020 | Family Matters
I’ve been working incredibly hard on our Family Tree over the last few months during lockdown and one of the most pleasing aspects of the research is how many paralels I have found between my life and those of my ancestors. It really has surprised me how many...
