Pearson reveals his family heartache
NIGEL PEARSON has lifted the lid on the anguish of a Premier League manager in exile – trying to support his 86-year-old father through grief and shield him from the pandemic.
Watford boss Pearson presided over two vital wins in the Christmas and New Year period while, unbeknown to Hornets fans, his mother was critically ill in hospital after a fall.
She passed away on January 3, and shortly before the nation was ordered into lockdown Pearson moved his elderly father into the family home so he did not have to face weeks in isolation alone.
For five days either side of the New Year, Pearson was commuting “backwards and forwards on the motorway” between Hertfordshire and his Sheffield home to maintain a vigil for his mum.
He said her death was a “huge shock” to absorb, revealing that his parents had been together for 64 years.
“Now we’re making sure we all rally around my dad.” Pearson told Watford’s podcast View From The Vic: “My dad is staying with us. I went to pick him up a couple of weeks ago.
“We’re being very careful as he’s 86. He’s my head gardener and I’m his apprentice! He’s doing a great job.
“Football really does pale into insignificance when you see how something like this can affect us all.
“It’s a really difficult time for everybody, there is a lot of uncertainty, a lot of readjusting and I think it’s become more shocking and more real as we move forward. I’m the same as everybody else and just adjusting to a different way of living at the moment.
“It’s important we are all staying safe and making sure we do what we can do in our small way and help the overall picture, not just in our country but worldwide.”
Pearson plotted home wins against Aston Villa and Wolves when he was going through his family emergency over the festive period.
It madeWatford’s climb off the bottom of the Premier League even more remarkable. They were seven points adrift of safety after his first game in charge on December 14.
Since sport went into hibernation because of the coronavirus, Pearson has kept in close contact with his squad, especially the players who are separated from their families abroad.
He said: “A lot of the players are away from their families and we have to try and understand what it means to people.
“Both my kids live in Sheffield and I walked to see them today and talked to them through the window. But if you are living away from your family it makes it even more difficult psychologically.
“We have to look after our own, that’s the most important thing, but I don’t think a day goes by when most people don’t spare a thought for other people.
“It’s a worrying time but what it does is sharpen people’s conscience about what it means for other people.”
We just have to look after our own