The End Of An Era

I listened to the radio this morning. It's something that I always used to do as I got myself ready for work and then on the drive in. But these days I just don't bother. However, today was different. It was Terry Wogan's last morning on the breakfast show and I felt that I couldn't miss it for old time's sake.

It's the second time that I have listened to Terry's last morning on the breakfast show because I can clearly remember listening to his last programme when he stopped being on the radio because he was moving to television for his chat show. In those days I was in the RAF and I had been unfortunate enough to end up on a week's duty over the Christmas period. The duty was such that not only did I have to be away from my family but it was a 24 hour a day duty so I was stuck at the base for Christmas week, patrolling during the day and sleeping at night, but there in case of emergencies.

My husband went to stay with my parents for Christmas, without me this time, but my parents loved him and he always said that they treated him more like a son than his father did (his Mum died when he was 10).

Anyway, my duty finished at 7.30 on the Friday morning and my husband came to pick me up, having driven up from London the previous evening, and then we drove down to London to spend the rest of the holiday period with my parents. And it was on that drive down that we listened to Terry's last show, first time around.

Listening today, I was reminded of that morning. Terry's voice has changed little over the years; you would find it hard to believe that he was 71 if it hadn't been said so much over the last few weeks. His humour hasn't changed much either. And it is obvious that there are going to be a lot of people in this country who are going to miss his cheery banter first thing in the morning.

But for me the biggest difference between those two "final breakfast shows" was that I had to listen to it on my own this morning. Since Terry gave up the breakfast show first time around, first my husband, then my Mum, and finally my Dad, have all died. And this will be another Christmas without my family around me, but for a very different reason.

Thank you Terry. You made the early mornings bright with your chat and even though I haven't listened to you much over the last couple of years, I will miss you very much when I put the radio on while deciding what time to get out of bed.