Obituaries
Here, you can access Colin’s life story as told by various journalists at the time of his passing. And below, we’d like to share a few words written by one of us at the time.
After we recoiled temporarily from the devastation that had befallen us, we began to deal with what had to be dealt with. We made a coffin, a beautiful coffin, organised a funeral, a procession, made heart rending phone calls, broke the news to faces that fell, organised planes, trains, buses, cars, prepared a parlour in which Colin spent his last bodily moments at the workshop, and called in resources from friends who were more than happy to offer transport, bagpipe music, food, drink…..anything. With broken hearts we sprang in to action, out of love and a feeling that he was watching to see if we would do a good job. Everyone was magnificent, every one a hero in that dark hour, everyone – even some guys whose names I wasn’t sure of. Such a man was Colin that these guys put in a whole shift for him.
I began to feel better instantly and was so proud to be a part of this miraculous, wonderful eclectic thing that is GalGael; and I began to see hope, hope that the whole will be greater than the sum of our parts - and now I think we can do a good job. We can do it with the discipline understood by the warrior and the athlete. With the discipline possessed by the eagle as she starves herself to nurture her young; and by the salmon who, against the odds swims from the cold dark depths of the northern oceans to leap the torrents of rivers in spate; and the discipline of the migrating goose whose every wing beat supports that of its nearest neighbour as they head south in mighty arrow formations.
There will be days when we will be afraid, afraid we might let it all slip down the drain and let Colin down. But now I feel up for it, GalGael will be our monument to our brother, Colin Murdo Macleod. We must keep our shape and hold our formation, dare to be brave, run with or against the wind, deal with torrents, feed those who hunger from hopelessness and support those around us with the beat of gentle wings. Be like the warrior, athlete, salmon, goose.
Right now we feel like we are all on Orcuan being tossed around on a dark sea. But Colin has built a safe haven for us and I can see that he has put up harbour lights to guide us home. From Govan granite, he has fashioned the quayside he often spoke of to which we can tie our boat. We must hold fast, keep growing and give thanks for knowing such a man.
Love Tam
Evening Times [ 0.14 Mb ]
Herald - Journey Home [ 0.17 Mb ]
The Independent [ 0.27 Mb ]
The Scotsman [ 0.33 Mb ]
The Sunday Mail [ 0.23 Mb ]
The Herald [ 0.31 Mb ]
West Highland Free Press [ 0.21 Mb ]
