“Only peace brings peace, only just acts bring justice”- Ursula K. Le Guin
To the late, Lord Chief Justice, Uncle Les Hirst.
I’m left heavy-hearted by the fact I won’t be able to see you around, whether driving past your office, or walking past a certain public house, checking through the lace curtains to see what literature you were engrossed in: it was usually one of your 5 daily newspapers you routinely purchased, or the latest Lee Child.
Regardless of whatever has happened in the past, I will choose to reminisce over some of my more sentimental and benevolent memories of you and our family.
From the moment I was born, you came to visit me and before the age of instant documentation via mobile phones, a very lovely photo was taken of you holding me within the first 24 hours of me falling onto this mortal coil. You look so proud and delighted for our family and my parents life changing event. Although I don’t have it to hand to upload to this tribute page, my parents still stand by the fact it’s a brilliant photo of you and I. Looking at this photo now, I have to agree, it’s a lovely photo.
I will always be grateful to both you, and my late uncle George for inviting me to Manchester United matches when I was young. Even when I stopped going to the matches, despite your keen encouragement, I just knew that the moment we lost uncle George, visiting Old Trafford would never be the same again for either of us. The loss of you has deepened this feeling of things never being the same again.
Having said that, I was still grateful for any Red Devil themed references I heard you scattering around here and there, always reminding me of that sacred time spent at the theatre of dreams. I will forever treasure the United coaster you purchased for me after the arena attack, at least you and George had made me a United supporter, a stance from which I’ll never stray.
On the theme of football, I still giggle to this day when grandma and I teased you by cheering for Panama, during a World Cup match against England, you still got the desired result of the latter winning the match.
Meanwhile, to change direction, I used to love your annual Christmas Eve phone calls to mum, asking for the trademark Hirst bread sauce recipe and without fail, she would be peeling sprouts as she went through the method with you. Even though they stopped after a little while, the memory lives fondly to this day.
Another time where I’ll forever be grateful to you and cherish forever, was when I completed a day of voluntary work at your office. I had expressed to grandma about possibly pursuing a legal career at some point. You kindly let me sit in for the day to be very honest with me about pursuing such a career, as well as sit on YouTube to play songs by Billy Preston and Bobby Darin’s title track from that darn cat. So not only did you provide a crash course to property law, I admired your honesty that day about pursuing the study of law.
Although it was briefly touched upon, I will miss our conversations about music. You were never shy to express your disdain for certain artists, whether it be the lead singer of the pretenders (which I won’t upload as it is rather a coarse opinion you held), or saying that ‘Tango in the Night’ by Fleetwood Mac is music to buy cornflakes to, one of the finest insults that the NME have yet to use in their publications.
Meanwhile, there is the music you loved too. When I hear the following artists and songs from now on, I will somehow be reminded of you, specifically the following back catalogues: The Beatles, Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald, Frank Sinatra most Disney soundtracks and Randy Newman. Or specific songs like Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superwoman’, Billy Joel’s ‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant’, Elton John’s ‘Your Song’. I will miss being given a small musical history that accompanied your musical opinions, whether good or bad.
Another fond memory I have of you was you rescuing me from stepping into the tedious clutches of forced social interaction with a certain neighbour of grandma’s. When you summoned me into the car, you’d already done two rounds of the village to avoid the aforementioned neighbour yourself, which still tickles me to this day.
The memory I will treasure the most however, is what you said about my parents. I was summoned into the pub by you after waving through the window at you and we got chatting, at one point, I distinctly remember you saying that my dad “has been very good to my little sister”, words that still touch my heart to this day.
I’m so glad that the last time I saw you in person, albeit strange for the pair of us as I was at work, was pleasant. I can take great comfort knowing that the last time I saw you in person, we had a lovely, long overdue conversation.
I’m so sorry you lost to the ultimate enemy that is cancer. It is a fight that none of us would ever wish on anybody, but I’m grateful that you didn’t have to fight it for long. We’ve all seen how painful that fight is and wouldn’t wish it on anybody else.
Now that you’ve shuffled off this mortal coil, I’ll always treasure the above forever.
May you finally rest in peace.
With all my love always
D.M.C.L
Daisy Lacey
28th November 2024
