Story by Glenn
Allen, a friend of mine, was a big, strong, not too smart but very kind hearted guy just a few years younger than me. He hadn’t finished school, was always in between jobs and was a bit directionless, having had a few minor brushes with the law. He was just sort of cruising along in life with no destination. I met him a few years previously through a friend of a friend I think. He used to look up to me a bit as I had the life he wanted, not that I was on top of the world at the time. I did have a beautiful girlfriend and a baby on the way, a relatively good paying fulltime job and Harley. Things that Allen would have loved to have, well maybe not the job come to think of it. Allen and I weren’t the closest of mates but we were friends. We shared an interest in motorbikes and a few vices.
Things changed for Allen a couple of years later when he started going out with one of my sister’s friends. Tania, a tough young girl from an even tougher family who knew how to keep him in line, not that it was too hard as he really was like a puppy dog. Allen was so happy and proud to be going out with Tania. I think he was the type of bloke that needed a partner more than most. Tania seemed to ground him, give him something to do with his time other that ride his bike or lay about. He still lay about though, only he was happy to lie about around Tania.
I couldn’t begin to describe how elated Allen was when Tania became pregnant, over the moon would not be an exaggeration. He really was excited that he would become a father. This event really changed Allen, seeing him so excited and chuffed at all things baby throughout the whole pregnancy, everyone knew he would be a wonderful father. He even started working fulltime to provide for Tania and the baby.
No one was going to be a prouder father that Allen.
The day finally arrived, along with a healthy baby girl, mother also doing very well. Allen was, well, over the moon again. Just talking with him I knew he had found a reason for everything, he was so happy.
Allen was going to do better than his best for his baby girl and nothing was going to hurt her. That’s why Allen never picked her up in the delivery room or the hospital. It was really bad timing but Allen had caught a cold a few of weeks before the birth and still had it a bit when his daughter was born. Although he couldn’t wait to give her a big cuddle, there was no way he was going to risk giving her a cold.
A few weeks passed and Allen’s cold lingered. He thought it would have been gone by now and so, still not having picked up his daughter, went to the Doctors to have it checked. A course of antibiotics and two weeks later his symptoms had improved but Allen wanted to make sure his cold was totally gone before he picked his little darling up. His daughter was five weeks old now.
Allen decided to wait another week until any traces of his cold were totally gone before he would hold his little girl, ‘one more week won’t matter to keep her safe, I have the rest of my life to hold her’ he said. At the end of that week, Allen’s cold had not got any better, in fact it had worsened. It was a Saturday night, six weeks after the birth of his baby and Allen felt really terrible. He was having trouble breathing and felt sicker that he had his whole life. Tania, and a couple of friends visiting them at the time, became very scared as Allen was not one to bung it on. They called an ambulance, it arrived shortly after. The paramedics came in to the house and checked Allen who was sitting on the couch in obvious discomfort. They told him he had the flu, to go to bed and rest and see his doctor in the morning. Tania couldn’t believe that the paramedics weren’t going to take Allen to hospital. As they were leaving she followed them out to the front yard and at first, pleaded with them to take him, then in no uncertain terms demanded they take him. Things got heated. While this was happening, Allen got up off the couch and slowly walked, as best he could, out the front door, straight past his partner and the paramedics to the back of the open ambulance and climbed in. That settled the argument and the ambulance took him to hospital.
That was Saturday night, on the following Wednesday night Allen’s parents signed the papers and the machines keeping him alive were turned off. So quick, just like that. The one thing Allen wanted most in the world was within his reach for six weeks and he never got to experienced it.
Lightening Crashes by Live was played at Allen’s funeral. He was 26 years old. It is so much sadder at a young person’s funeral. All funerals a sad but at Allen’s there was sorrow at a life unlived, a father unfulfilled and a little girl who never felt the gentle loving hand of her doting daddy.
Lightening Crashes evokes a feeling of sadness to a greater degree than any song reprises a joyful event. I used to shed a tear for Allen every time I heard that song on the radio after his funeral. As time has passed, at the strumming of the opening cords, the tears have been replaced by shivers up my spine and a feeling of sadness for Allen.
Artwork by Karin
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