fionaistravelling

"We knew he was good, but we didn't know he was THAT good".  That's what my sister said, all last week, when we were reading the newspaper headlines and amazing tributes from all sides of the political spectrum for my fantastic brother in law, Peter Rankin, former leader of Preston City Council. Here's a l ink to the article that the Lancashire Post did on his funeral ...  and here's a pic of the double page spread of the funeral coverage. Here's what I wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, the day after the funeral (so some of you will have read this already) The photo is of my wonderful nieces who both wrote beautiful tributes that they read to honour their father Peter Rankin at his funeral yesterday at Preston Minster.  As 20 year leader of Preston City Council Pete was given a civic funeral. This meant a packed service wth city councillors in their robes: but before that, when the funeral cortège drove through the city, staff from the town ha...

In my last blog two weeks ago I said I'd changed my travel plans to come up north to spend some time with my sister and nieces, while my brother in law was ill.  Definitely the best decision I've ever made. I have been privileged to be here, spending time with my sister's family, seeing their devotion to Peter, and hearing what a great dad he was as well as such a prominent public figure. He was eventually able to come home from hospital a week last Friday, and died last Sunday night,  peacefully, at home, in the arms of his loving family, my sister Lynn and his daughters, my nieces Jen and Gilly.  He had twice been the leader of Preston city council, for around twenty years in total.  He'd done so much for the city - the headline in the Lancashire Evening Post last Tuesday was: "We have lost a great man". With the whole front page, an editorial, and two inside pages, dedicated to him, I don't think I've ever seen anything like this.   The fami...

Fiona's travelling adventure week five ... has taken on another rhythm. I had a week between arriving back from Ireland and my planned trip to Spain, to see my friend Kate then go sailing. So I decided to spend the time with my sister and nieces, at a difficult time in their lives while my brother in law is seriously ill. It was good that I came at this time - the day after I got here Pete  took a turn for the worse.  I hired a car and have been a full time taxi driver , plant waterer and cat feeder for the family  as well as doing some shifts in the hospital between nieces. And I've seen my mum too, who lives 40 or so minutes away. It's wonderful not to have work commitments so I can be here for the family . As well as this I'm  doing a bit of podcast editing, the latest is putting a medley together of four music events  in five days that I took in  at the end of May - in the club at Cape Clear, in Hughes Bar in Dublin, at the Horseshoe at...