Actually Michael – Mick was what he went by. Gone on Saturday with metastatic cancer.
Basically the first person I’d meet when I flew into Mandeville, Jamaica for my teaching job end of August, 1977. He’d arrived the day before I had, and I met him the second day I was there.
Mick was from Northern England (Wigan),a history and geography teacher and really knew his stuff. He lived a few yards away from me and we were great friends for the two years we were both there. Mick the best man at our wedding, despite purporting to have zero (0) religious sensibilities.
Here is what I posted on the Mandeville what’s app – which is Mandeville people, mostly involved with the Mandeville Rugby club (which I proudly captained my second year in Jamaica).
Very sad news. I’ve kept in touch with Mick since we left Jamaica in 1979. He and jan were at brigid sister’s funeral five plus years ago. He’d called me about 6 -7 weeks – news was metastatic colon and abdominal cancer. He’d gone to his GP 12 or 15 months ago and was told ur just getting old. I think he was collateral damage from the pandemic. Brigid and I did a zoom with him 2 weeks ago and he was kind of upbeat even though he knew he was terminally I’ll. I called him this past wednesday and he said he was not starting chemo, could not hold down any food. We planned to do a zoom this weekend but when i called around 7pm uk time Jan said he was ‘in his last hours.” His daughter Heidi called us 2 hours later saying her Dad had died and please pass on word to people he knew. Mick was certainly a unique guy – an enigma really. But a good person – wouldn’t hurt a bedbug. I see him flying around the universe right now with a chip pan, looking for a game of snooker. Will put up his address and family phone number tomorrow – God Bless his family.
Here is a picture from the end of June, 1979, the night before we flew out of Jamaica. Mick is the guy with the beard, Graham (a rugby player) with a Red Stripe, and tall dude is Liam (another rugby player).
Ahh! And here is the next morning as we are at the Mandeville airstrip waiting for our flight out on the little island hopper. That’s Paul Foster (another rugby player!) with Brigid and Mick. Two out of three (not Mick!) looking the worse for wear from the previous night!
December 1993 and Brigid took this picture of Mick with his family. That’s Joe on Jan’s lap – he’s 6 months old. the little girl in yellow is Heidi – and she’s now a surgeon. The other pretty girl is Zoe who is a math (I think math, or maths as it’s mis-spoken in the UK) teacher.
I will really miss Mick. Brigid and I are so glad we were able to have great zoom call with Mick on the 15th for a good 45 minutes. I’m betting he’s on a grand trip right now.
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