This Volume at a Glance:

• Obituary~ The Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton ;

It is the inevitability of Life that on one unforeseen day or night we shall all pass away to the greatest adventure of all ~ to Death.

Fortunately we know not either the minute, the hour, nor the day but there is a mythological Irish tale which speaks of that moment when the coach with its black plumed horses arrives, not a moment early, nor a moment late, and the hand reaches out to take us on this last great adventure of all…

In the hushed funeral conversations which follow rarely is the question asked did this person, to whom we are all paying last respects make the world a better place?

There can be no doubt that Baroness, the Lady, Farrington of Ribbleton, was such a beautiful  person.

Both beautiful on the outside, and more importantly, of beautiful Spirit on in the inside.

As you might expect much has been written by the High and Mighty in praise of Josie Farrington as she was perpetually known to her friends.

But knowing Josie as I did I am sure she would greatly appreciate, and perhaps value above all else, the truly respectful eulogies of those who worked their entire lives in the streets and on the highways and byways of her beloved Lancashire.

I first met Josie when in cohort with her equally inestimable friend Louise Ellman MP when they unreservedly supported the FBU with its second historical, but greater, mission of the Lancashire County Fire Brigade in rescue aid of the Earthquake victims of Armenia in 1988 in the then Soviet Union.

Against the wishes of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister at that time, in a phone call  which I was privy to hear and thus witness Mrs Thatcher threatened that she would personally surcharge any politician involved in this rescue mission to the individual tune of £50,000.0.

Undaunted,and supported by the Firefighters of Lancashire who promised to hit the streets with the collection buckets, Josie and Louise, of steely wills, pushed on to bring it to a successful conclusion which was ultimately to place Lancashire County Fire Brigade first on a new list at UNDRO registering the LCFB and the UK as a 24/7 International Rescue Team.

Later, when she became European Woman of the Year in Education, she asked once more for the support of the Firefighters of Lancashire who ‘borrowed’ this and that to provide her with 10,000 tonnes of emergency biscuits and 100,000 plastic spoons, bowls, and field cookers to provide at least one warm meal a day within the 'schools' of an emerging Albania.

Josie Farrington cared for her children of Lancashire as well as those in Albania.

Much later this shy, but ever warm person, was rightly to receives the accolades of her Labour Party; her Nation in the House of Lords; and as a servant of Her Majesty the Queen as a Lady-in-Waiting. Yet, she never forgot her roots, or who she was…

And true to those beliefs, and never for one moment forgetting them, Josie was to be regularly seen departing Preston Railways Station in the Second Class carriage she chose to sit in as she went about her patriotic duties.

Lady Josie used to say when we met… “here comes my favourite Firefighter”…what an honour for me, and all those International Firefighters in Lancashire she had come in contact with.

We shared a Birthday, the 29^th June, and I shall remember Josie on mine…it is to be hoped that Saints Peter and Paul will do their loving duty by her…they had better…

I have had the great privilege to know such a rare and honouable politician and a courageous and spirited English Lady and indeed this Nation is the poorer with her passing with its loss of her Spirit as she fought for a newer better world.

There is no doubt Josephine left her world a better place for her passing…

But  we must not allow Josie to travel alone on this last great adventure without an Ancient Gaelic Blessing…
 

“May the Blessing of Light be on you, Light without and Light within. May the Blessed sun shine on you and warm your Heart ‘til it glows like a great peat fire, so that the stranger may come and warm himself at it, and also a friend”;

And may the Light shine out of the two eyes of you like a candle set in the two windows of a house bidding the wanderer to come in out of the storm;

And may the Blessing of the Rain be upon you – the soft, sweet rain. May it fall upon your Spirit so that all the little flowers may spring up and shed their sweetness on the air;

And may the Blessing of the Great Rains be on you, may they beat upon your Spirit and wash it fair and clean, and leave there many a Shining Pool where the Blue of Heaven shines reflected, and sometimes a Star;

And may the Blessings of the Earth be on you-the great and round Earth; may you ever have a kindly greeting for them you pass as you are going along the roads;

May the Earth be soft under you when you lie upon it, tired at the end of the day, and may it rest easy over you when, at last, you lie out under it; may it rest so lightly , that your Soul may be quickly through it , and up and off, and on your way to God”…

Requiescant in Pace.