Coincidence?

Life can be very strange and unexpectedly poignant sometimes. It was sad to hear in yesterday’s news that the singer Chris Rea had died. I was a big fan of his “Road to Hell” album and the follow-up, “Auberge“.

These sounds seems a long time ago now. I’d since heard that Chris been very ill recently, but my only connection with him after those albums had been that hilarious mention in the panel game show, “Would I Lie to You?”One of my heroes, Bob Mortimer, is at his finest telling the pants-wettingly funny “egg in a bath” story involving Chris. I must have watched the clip nine or ten times on YouTube.

Over the last month or so, I’ve been listening Bob’s memoirs – “And Away.” It being Christmas, I haven’t listened to updates for a couple of weeks, despite being just close to the end. Listening this morning on a drive to Weymouth, Bob brought up his appearance on “WILTY”. After talking about the show, he paid a little tribute to his old mate Chris. It was very moving – they known each other a long time due to their Middlesborough connections. It was almost as though it had been added in following his passing away- but it couldn’t possibly have been.

It’s hard to believe that these things are coincidences sometimes. It may seem like we’re trudging along the road to hell at times, but it’s a road walked by genuinely good and down-to-Earth people like Chris and Bob; and I guess it’s important to be reminded of this from time to time by whatever gods throw these gifts our way.