Dad’s musical collection will help others

THE sad thing when someone dies is what to do with their stuff.

Easy enough if it’s a Rolex watch, but I’m talking about their ‘treasures’.

In my case, when I shuffle off this mortal coil, I can imagine my family thinking ‘what the chuff do we do with all these hole punches and rubber stamps?’

Things I have had joy in collecting over the years from climes afar. I haven’t even used half of them, I just ‘coveted’ them and have amassed quite the collection.

They won’t mean a fraction as much to anyone else as they do to me.

In my dad’s case his treasure was his prized music collection – and it really was his pride.

He had hundreds of cassettes, many that he’d taped himself from his records so he could listen to them on his Walkman.

I barely recognised my dad without a pair of headphones on. It will break my heart a little to have to dump them because I’ve tried, but no-one wants them and I’m just glad that the Barnsley dementia charity BIADS are taking his

CDs. It’s music of an era, but there are many people for whom these songs and tunes of yesteryear will mean something and unlock doors in their minds where memories are hiding.

A small consolation, but a happy one for me.

■ I was delighted to hear about Elena Barham who made the shortlist of five for the 2022 BBC Young Writers’ Award.

Elena’s story ‘Little Acorns’ is set in the 1940s and was originally going to be the start of a novel.

Sometimes that happens, writing can take a twist and tell you what it’s going to be rather than the other way round.

At the time of writing this, I don’t know who will have won but it’s quite an achievement anyway to be on such a prestigious shortlist and I can barely type for crossing my fingers. It should come as no surprise though that Elena has a talent for writing because while doing some research into her ancestry, she has discovered that she is actually related to William Shakespeare.

Also not surprising because she’s from Barnsley and we seem to have a plethora of people excelling in the Arts. The more the merrier – and now we have yet another forming star to add to our collection.

■ A letter in the Chron asked us to discuss organ donation because it was ‘Organ Donation Week’ last week.

I’ve missed it if it was, but it is ALWAYS a good time to talk about such an important subject.

It featured in one of my books and I was contacted by a couple of people who were quite vehement that I shouldn’t have done that because they were set against it and that it was an abomination.

A friend of mine’s young husband died and five people at least have a second chance at life because of him, including a tiny baby who was days away from dying.

Another young friend, who could hardly breathe, benefitted from a lung transplant and breathed his first large lungfuls of air in his early 20s.

It’s a sticky subject to have to raise in an emotional time so take the onus off your relatives, so if you want to donate your organs, register at www.organdonation.nhs.uk, it takes no time at all.

And if you’re against such a thing, don’t write and tell me about what you think because I really don’t give a monkeys.