Thursday, February 16, 2006

Al is Dead


Dark news from Drumsleet indeed. Funeral this morning for Black Al, window-cleaner, hill-walker and general raconteur, a man of vast talent and unrealised potential. The Tam O' Shanter pub has been taking on the aspect of a charnel house over the last year if the truth be told, Willie McNinch, Ian Dunbar, John Barr and now Al. Went to the hospice on Friday to see him and he tried to get on the bus with me to go back to the pub, tracheotomy and all. When I left him he was sitting with his head in his hands. Next day he was dead. I should have let him come, shouldn't I? Only the most lethal of diseases would dare to separate Al from the craik.

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