MSP reveals heartache of losing father to the bottle
IT is the dream of every young girl to have her father walk her down the aisle.
But one MSP has revealed her heartache at her alcoholic father’s absence on her own big day.
monica Lennon, the Holyrood representative for Central Scotland, barred her father from her wedding because he could not be trusted to stay sober.
In a heartbreaking interview, the 36-year-old said: ‘I got married when I was 24 and my dad wasn’t there. That’s so awful.
‘His drinking was so out of control that he couldn’t promise to be sober or that he wouldn’t be drinking in the days before the wedding or drunk on the day. every bride wants her dad walking them up the aisle and saying nice things about them in their speech.
‘I haven’t been to a wedding since when I haven’t got choked up when I see the bride with her father. It’s still awfully sore.’
The Labour politician first spoke about her father’s drink-related death during First minister’s Questions at Holyrood last month).
But she is now seeking a wider debate about the damage done by alcohol in Scotland by highlighting the turmoil it caused to her father Gerard Ward, who died from his addiction at the age of 60 in 2015.
Discussing her upbringing with her father – who worked as a health and safety officer – she said: ‘I was a daddy’s girl, always running to the gate, waiting for him to come home. I was hoping I’d make him so proud he’d give up drinking, that he’d stay out the pub.’
Her dad was a social drinker when she was growing up in Blantyre but over the years his visits to the pub became more frequent.
mrs Lennon said: ‘It’s hard to say at what point he lost control.
‘my dad was a health and safety officer, making sure people were looked after and protected and he was good at his job. He could protect everyone but himself.’
‘even when he was alive, when I stopped being angry with him or feeling guilty about him, it was only sadness that was left.
‘I’d often be furious with him for putting drinking first, before us, before everything. There were blazing rows but looking back, it’s just sadness. ‘We just wanted him to stop.’ Her father’s drinking got worse as she entered her teens and she remembers escalating tension between him and her mother Helen. The pair eventually divorced.
She said: ‘We need to be more aware of the damage being done by problem drinking and that will only happen when people are comfortable talking about it.
‘There is legislation, policies and funding that can help but the culture has to change.’