Caroline Aherne has died

[MAB]

Dreadful news, she was only fifty two and had suffered various forms of cancer for decades.  For me one of the funniest women ever on TV,  she had survived against the odds before and I had hoped she would do so again.

 

RIP Caroline.

Edited July 2, 2016 by MAB

[Balletfanp]

Terrible. I remember watching the Royal Family Christmas special a few years back and thinking what an incredibly clever mix of comedy and heartbreaking sadness it was. Genius. So very sad.

[Jan McNulty]

Very, very sad news.  

 

From the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36694598

 

Steve Coogan on Caroline Aherne: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/jul/02/naturally-funny-cross-generational-steve-coogan-on-caroline-aherne

[Jan McNulty]

Ricky Tomlinson remembers Caroline Aherne: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/ricky-tomlinson-pays-heartbreaking-tribute-11559284

[Anna C]

How dreadful. Bloody Cancer.

[Fiz]

Bloody 2016!

[Anon2]

So sad. RIP you clever lady.

[Lisa O`Brien]

Just read Janet's link to the BBC obituary about Caroline. Fancy being born with eye cancer. OMG.

[Fonty]

Only just noticed this.

 

How sad.

[Lisa O`Brien]

My lovely elderly next door neighbour always posts newspapers he has read through my letterbox. Mainly the Mirror. The Mirror said she died alone at her home in Timperley, Manchester; her family unaware she had taken a turn for the worse. I only read the headline and the first few lines as it just upset me too much thinking about going like that.

[Fiz]

I agree with you, Lisa. It brought tears to my eyes. Poor woman.

[Anna C]

I read somewhere - it may have been in Jennifer Worth's book "In the midst of life" - that some people almost choose to die alone. By which I mean that even if they are unconscious, they seem to wait for their loved one/s to leave the room or pop home. Whether the person has a very strong sense that they don't want their loved one to have the trauma of seeing the moments of death, - to spare them, perhaps - I don't know. Just as some people seem to have the will to hold on to life until they are released, or until their loved ones arrive, other people seem to wait until they are alone.

 

So perhaps this was a conscious choice? Whatever the reason, I hope Caroline Aherne is at peace now. Bless her.

[Jan McNulty]

I read somewhere - it may have been in Jennifer Worth's book "In the midst of life" - that some people almost choose to die alone. By which I mean that even if they are unconscious, they seem to wait for their loved one/s to leave the room or pop home. Whether the person has a very strong sense that they don't want their loved one to have the trauma of seeing the moments of death, - to spare them, perhaps - I don't know. Just as some people seem to have the will to hold on to life until they are released, or until their loved ones arrive, other people seem to wait until they are alone.

 

So perhaps this was a conscious choice? Whatever the reason, I hope Caroline Aherne is at peace now. Bless her.

 

 

I've heard that somewhere recently too Anna.

[Anon2]

I've heard that somewhere recently too Anna.

You see it often when caring for the dying. The family members will sit by the bed for hours without a break, the moment they choose to pop to the toilet or get a coffee their loved one passes away. It can be devastating for the family.

[Lisa O`Brien]

I've never heard of this before. Very interesting. I know my mum died ten minutes before we arrived at the hospital. They had phoned me up telling me she had taken a turn for the worse at about 4AM. Luckily my sister and her husband lived on the same street. I ran over the road to wake them up, but it took ages, shouting up at the bedroom window, as they hadn't heard me phoning them. Then I had to get baby Sean sorted and in to his uncle's car. Then we had to drive from where we all lived in Salford to where my mum lived in Stockport. I burst in to tears when the nurse told us me and Sue's mum had died ten minutes earlier. I think I cried because I was more upset that I had missed seeing her to say goodbye before she died than the actual fact she had died, if that makes sense.

[Anna C]

Ah, that's very sad Lisa - I am sorry.

[Lisa O`Brien]

Ah, that's very sad Lisa - I am sorry.

Thank you Anna.

[Lisa O`Brien]

My mum had had a rough few months beforehand. Someone had let a con woman into the building where my mum's flat was and she knocked on my mum's door. I was there as I went there every week to do housework for her. Baby Sean was asleep on the sofa and I had dozed off next to him. I didn't hear anyone knock on the door. Apparently the woman was pretending to be a volunteer, and said to my mum very rudely, "Well are you going to let me in then or not?" My mum thought she was indeed being rude and let her in. There's no way I would have. I woke up to see a woman standing with her back to me but standing where I knew my mum's handbag had been ,on the sideboard. She introduced herself and said she was currently unemployed and to pass the time was interested in doing some voluntary work with the elderly. She just didn't look like the type of person who would give up their spare time to help others. I know you can't judge people by their appearance, but she was really rough looking, with those black tattoos all over her knuckles; the type I think people do themselves while in prison. As she turned towards me I could clearly see mum's large purple purse partially hidden under her jacket. Do you know when you see something but don't quite believe what you have seen? I thought if I confront this woman about having taken my mum's purse and she hasn't and the poor woman had only come here to offer to help in any way I will feel terrible. I also thought if she HAS taken mum's purse out of her handbag and I confront her, how will she react? I was responsible for the welfare of a dying 74 year old and a small baby. So I played it cool and pretended as if nothing was wrong. She sat down and chatted with me and mum, as cool as a cucumber,for about 20 minutes. The second she left I locked the front door behind her and phoned the police. My mum didn't have a clue she had been robbed. A police woman came round. As she was taking details from me, her radio kept going off saying, someone has been robbed by a female in the same block of flats. Then another one, and another. She robbed a total of fourteen separate people in the space of an hour. Both me and mum had to go down to the police station the next day to make a statement and to see if we could positively identify her. I was dreading that part. I have a rotten memory for faces. However, they opened the first of 3 "mug shot" books, and there she was on the second page. The police woman left me alone with the book opened on the same page for a few minutes, I assume to make sure in my mind I knew it was her. I said it was definately her. A detective came in. He said in all his career he had never once had a positive ID from out of the " mug shot" books. They were all ecstatic and punching the air. Something one of them said to me made me think they suspected it had been her as soon as they got the call but had no proof. Mum and all the other victims all had to go in seperately to look through the same books in the following days. Every one of them identified the same woman as me. She denied it for ages and we were told it would probably go to court. But then she suddenly changed her mind and admitted them all. The local newspaper called her Stockport's worst ever con woman. She got six years in prison, but sadly my mum had already died about two months earlier. Pity she hadn't lived a bit longer to see justice being done.

Edited July 7, 2016 by Lisa O`Brien