CHARLIE
CROSS : BORN 1 APRIL 1955: DIED 18 JUNE
1995
He
was born at the
Our Mother said that " he was like a leopard " when born, covered in spots, owing to some blood disorder.
My first memory of my brother Charlie is seeing him in his pram with a pretty white hat, made of cotton, tied round his neck in a bow. He was just so tiny, and he cried a lot. It must have been his first or second summer and my third or fourth.
Daily ( our Mother) got us ready to go out. I was expected to walk, reigns attached. I couldn't grasp who this other little chap was, but soon got used to him.
Somehow, I remember the sun was always shining, the pavements were hot to walk on, the tar on the roads even melted sometimes. There was also a peacefulness in the air. The traffic was lighter and slower, the Calder Water was clean and free of smells and effluent. This was a 50s childhood, in a small village in Lanarkshire where coal and iron ore mining had been the principal occupation for over a hundred years.
Charlie had a reputation
as a singer and his rendering of old gospel hymns was very moving. As a party
piece he did a marvellous take on Zena Zavaroni " Ma, he's makin' eyes at me..." We
did try a few duets together, we disappeared at the seaside to make a record in
one of the record booths that were popular in the 60s & we repeated our
" Someone " in later years, at New Year parties, in
Charlie had the chance to go to agricultural college when he was 11, it was regretted later that he did not go there. As_it was he transferred from Cleland and Omoa JS School to Coltness High School and ended up leaving school at 16, in 1971. He joined our father then, who had started his own central heating business in 1970, and the running joke for years was that Charlie was the very oldest_apprentice in Scotland. The two of them became inseparable as Oil Heat Services Lanarkshire.They didn't always agree and much of their work was dirty and spent out in all weathers. But they were both good engineers and very reliable.
Charlie looked forward to his weekends off and this was spent in the company of a small crowd. Saturday night was club night, for years with best pal, Frank Keenan. He developed a very skilful singing act on the clubs circuit, taking the micky out of TV adverts& helped raise money for many good causes.
Dear Charlie suffered a great deal through his long illness after kidney failure, and the dialysis ordeal took its toll. But, he could be amusing & witty & sometimes impossible, but always brave. Charlie remained close to our brother Keir, they had been in the house together with our parents after I left Scotland in 1972. Keir moved South in 1983, but they had memories and experiences that I didn't share and they both had a interest in sport, both played together in the Bellside football Team, usually overseen by Bellside weans. Charlie, like Keir was a good goalie.
There is a good word for Charlie that sticks in my mind and it was in fact the word used by Rev Mr Wilson, of Cleland Parish Church, to sum him up in his funeral address. That word is EXTROVERT.
He is still very much loved and missed.
Happy Birthday, Charlie.
