B A R B
That's what the funeral flowers spelt out! In yellow and white flowers, most of them rather shrivelled and browning. The odd thing about this tribute was that it was located next to the Promenade on Prestatyn's central beach. Barb's flowers ( I presume her hame was Barbara) were placed with care on some thin grass facing the sea of Liverpool bay/Irish Sea. I saw them when I was walking the dogs the other day. Several people ahead of me, stopped to gaze at something over the low sea wall, and human nature being what it is, I did the same.
The flowers looked sad and surprisingly untouched ( I thought the odd delinquint child might of kicked them around a bit), and suddenly, I found myself worrying about who BARB was? Had she committed suicide on this cold beach, pills and vodka bottle strewn about her thin common body? BARB , the name made me think of a working class woman in her 60's or 70's, overly slim,dyed blonde hair, several gold chains and rings and bad teeth, relationship and mental health problems perhaps? saddened I walked on
The next day the flowers were still there, and the next day and the next! and left unmolested.each day I wondered about who BARB was? My first stereotypical revolving door/trailer trash victim soon changed into an elderly liverpudlian whoose favourite beach and happy times were located in Prestatyn, then a aging mum who died of cancer too early. Who knows..........a few sad yellow flowers on a lonely beach..............I was so happy to be able to walk on with dogs in tow and go home to sit infront of a fire and watch Judge Judy.
Of course, we all knew Barb: she (or, at least, someone very much like her) lived down the road from you.
ReplyDeleteI first saw her in The Asda, Birkenhead.
And Birkenhead market, as Barb would recall, was never the same after the fire.
That was in 1974, you know.
Now, her peroxide hair: nicotine yellow, piss on snow, autumn leaf, topaz jewellery, and her name in flowers, all wet and matted in the salt and silt.
Barb – as in ‘Our Barb’.
Mouth her name silently: it sounds better like this, and it locates us all, wonderfully.