Urban Legends
'WHAT A WAY TO GO!'
Urban Legends
WHAT A WAY TO GO!
An Irish folk musician who was brought up near Oldham in Lancashire eventually
married and with his wife, returned to the Emerald Isle. She also was a
musician and together, they opened a music centre in a small town on the
west coast of Ireland.
Whilst still relatively young, he had said to his wife and friends that when
he died, he wanted to be cremated and have half of his ashes scattered over
the music centre and the remainder over a specific location on Saddleworth
Moor, a bleak area of the Pennines, close to the Lancashire/Yorkshire
border and near to where he grew up. His friends, whilst saying that he was
far too young to be thinking such morbid thoughts, agreed to carry out his
request.
Around Easter time in 2001, a fire broke out at the music centre and
in it, he lost his life. Remembering his wishes, the first part of his request
was carried out. However, when they came back to Saddleworth to complete the
task, his friends discovered that because of that year's devastating Foot & Mouth outbreak, the party were refused access to the farm land on
Saddleworth Moor where they had promised to scatter the ashes. They considered
hiring a helicopter, but the cost was too high.
And then determined to carry out their friend's wishes, they had a stroke of
inspiration. One of the group went to a local garden centre and purchased the
largest sky rocket that he could find. He removed the nose-cone, filled the
cavity with the ashes and replaced the cone. Then getting as close as possible
to the target area, they drove a short length of drainpipe into the ground to
act as a launcher. The rocket tail was then placed into the pipe.
Being musicians, they played a suitable Irish lament, said a few appropriate
words and lit the touch paper. The rocket soared into the sky, high over the
prescribed field where it exploded in a spectacular display of coloured stars.
The cloud of ashes slowly descended to earth, perfectly scattered in exactly
the desired location! Mission completed!
To the best of our knowledge this is a true story! - Well we wouldn't lie to
you - would we?
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