Bernadette
Nolan (17th October 1960 to 4th July 2013)
When I was seven I can remember seeing The Nolans on Top Of The
Pops miming their most commercial hit I’m
In The Mood For Dancing. I can remember the five sisters (and there were
two brothers) looking similar as siblings often do – and so young.
You expect
folk to live a long life and generally die in the order in which they were born
don’t you? However cancer cares for nobody nor their age and often
indiscriminately picks one out to go early. Though Bernadette (Bernie) was the
second youngest sister she died of cancer aged 52 and here I am at the Carleton
Cemetery in Blackpool where here ashes are buried.
Carleton
Cemetery is probably the main crematorium and cemetery in Blackpool and I’ve
visited many times to seek out graves of actors and performers. I’d drove north
from Lytham, passing Stanley Park (and Blackpool Zoo) where the other Nolans live. After a
stroll round the cemetery I forced myself to the section housing the baby graves
(Bernie’s ashes are here.) There are so many “Born Sleep” engravings you question
if there’s anything powerful up there. Can the parents forgive an
interventionist god?
Those poor
kids who never took one lungful of air make me weep inwardly. No matter how
many fly-wheels, pigs, rattles, teddy bears, footballs and dolls are piled onto
these graves they mustn’t move even a nanometre of pain the parents feel daily.
And this is just the baby section – countless other kids are buried in the
adults section. If you’re having a bad day stroll round a baby graveyard. The
crumbs of self-pity are blown away instantly and you realise how extravagantly lucky
you are.
Yes, Bernie’s
ashes are buried here – in the baby’s section as planned. She was first
diagnosed with breast cancer aged 50 after a career as a singer (she was lead
vocalist in The Nolans who sold millions of
recordings worldwide particularly in Japan where they sold over nine million
albums), a performer in numerous musicals and a television actress. Though it
had spread to her lymph nodes she had treatment and was cancer-free. However
two years later the cancer had returned and spread to most vital organs. She
died while sleeping at home in Surrey and left a husband and daughter.
A grand
funeral service was held at Blackpool’s Grand Theatre. Bernie’s ashes were
later buried here in the children’s section. At 38 she’d given birth to a
stillborn daughter Kate and her meticulously-planned funeral included joining
her.
The crematorium or “Person To
Powder” machine…
The funeral service was held at The
Grand Theatre in central Blackpool…
