OH dearest Jenni Murray. How sad I am that you have gone, and way too early too at 75 because that is no age these days.
Formidable and forthright, a woman who brought the limelight on the menopause way before Davina.
She dragged attention to female genital mutilation, domestic violence. She had her platform and she used it to the best of her abilities and for the good of the sisterhood.
She was one of us, extraordinary and also ordinary not hiding her battles with her weight and her cigs over the years and she turned the putdowns she had into a fuel to power her.
By that I mean the institution who didn’t like her accent and closer to home her mother with whom she had a difficult relationship, mocking her size, her abilities.
She was never afraid to ask hard questions, she made no apology for her beliefs, even if some of those beliefs got her almost cancelled.
But that’s the world we live in where women after ever more oppressed, more subjugated by men than ever. Those ladies who burnt their bras in the 1960s for women’s rights must be turning in their graves if they’ve passed and shaking their heads if they haven’t. Jenni was a loud and true voice for right, a heroine who was a Barnsley High School girl, an example of what you can achieve if you put your heart and soul into what you want whatever the odds against you.
She will always be one of our town greats, an icon and I hope her memory repels the cheap mud shots from those who are not fit to lick her boots, for they will never achieve what she did. Rest in peace, our Jenni, you absolute legend.
Talking of the menopause… it can be a hard part of a woman’s life. Some fly through it, some experience a full selection box of the many symptoms.
It can be exhausting mentally as well as physically. I haven’t had a good natural sleep for years. Some women wake up in a bath of sweat, some women can’t function because of anxiety they never had before.
Some think they’re going mad (holds hand up - had that phase). The emotional turbulence, the joint ache… Ooh you’re lucky if you’re a bloke and all you have to worry about is shaving your beard off at this stage of life.
Then again, some women are worrying about that at this age as well. I could stuff a pillow with the ‘down’ on my chops.
My point being that if you want some respite, then there is a group you might like to join on Facebook where you can shout off, give and take advice, feel heard. Just look up ‘Menopause Support Group Barnsley’ and join their community.
Well the big roses are lit and they’re lovely but looking at a load of the comments on Facebook one might think they’re a tribute to the Hitler Youth movement.
The money couldn’t have been spent on the homeless and potholes, so we were right to take it and spend it on something beautiful.
And yes the Yorkshire rose is white, but it can change colour to red – which does not mean it’s a tribute to Lancashire FFS.
Let some joy in your souls, folks. Enjoy Barnsley having stunning artworks and even if they aren’t to your taste, appreciate that the town is not grinding to a death like many towns and trust me, I see quite a few that are on my travels and you really wouldn’t want Barnsley to be a Bishop Auckland. Embrace the changes. For all our sakes.
