A little while ago I wrote about Newcastle, Father’s Day and Gordon, my step-dad (I have 3 dads - it’s complicated). Football was back after lockdown & life would never be the same again. This is a little thread, but that (very personal) piece is here. https://theathletic.com/1882545/2020/06/20/newcastle-fathers-day-stepfather-love-loss/?source=emp_shared_article

Gordon took me to my 1st match at St James’ Park, decades ago. He led me to the club and so he pointed me towards this very lucky life. In March, Gordon was diagnosed with coronavirus. 3 times he went into intensive care. He was told if he went in again, he wouldn’t come out.

(A small digression, but if you’re able, please do wear a mask in shops or enclosed public areas. This disease is very real. What it does can be brutal. If there’s only a tiny chance you might protect other people & in turn, protect yourself, please do it. Don’t take the risk).

What Gordon, Pat his partner, and our family went through was a nightmare. There were a couple of times when Pat, my brothers Tom & AJ & I spoke after being told Gordon might not make it through the night. All of us helpless. We couldn’t see him, we couldn’t hug each other.

At the worst moment, the only thing I could think of was to ask for a favour. It was really embarrassing, but I asked Alan Shearer if he would record Gordon a little video. He did it straight away. “Come on, you can do it - pull through,” @alanshearer said. Gordon kept fighting.

A couple of weeks later, Pat and Gordon were married in hospital. They got special dispensation to do it; none of us knew if Gordon would ever get home. It was incredibly emotional. They played Mark Knopfler for them. The nurses decorated his wheelchair.

The bit I didn’t write in that piece is that Alan kept in touch about Gordon. Every few days he’d ask how he was doing, if there was an update. When I said about the wedding, Alan recorded another video (I didn’t ask this time, he just sent it). “Wow, well done!” he said.

Weeks & weeks had gone by: nobody had been on the coronavirus ward longer than Gordon, but eventually he was clapped out & moved to another hospital. 18 days after that, he went home to Pat. It felt like a miracle, although he is still very vulnerable & poorly.

Alan kept asking about Gordon and he was made up when I explained he was home. “Great, I’d like to come and visit him,” he said. Eh? What? No way, you don’t need to do that. But Alan insisted, point blank, so we looked at a couple of dates. None of us could believe it.

Today, I got to spend an hour listening to Gordon talk Newcastle and football with (a masked) Alan Shearer, the club’s greatest ever player, and, truly, I thought my heart would burst. I know that, in lots of ways, we are the lucky ones. I know that so many others are not.

Thank you @alanshearer for giving us some light in a moment of darkness. You are a legend & a hero & you are much, much more than that. Thank you to the incredible NHS staff on Ward 12 in Cramlington. And thank you Gordon, for everything. For listening to Alan & pulling through.