Heavenly Visit

I had a visit to heaven to see my Dad. It wasn’t what I expected as it somehow resembled the station café at Paisley Central, the bit I was in any way.

He looked just like he had done when I was a wee boy in East Kilbride when he’d have been in his early thirties, a-glowing with health and vitality like he was all ready to take me into town for pie and chips at RS McColl’s and then off to Parkhead to see the Celts pummel the latest opposition.

“Great to see you, son”

“Great to see you too Da. I’ve missed you. We all have”

“I know that, son, and it’s appreciated”

I stare at him like I can’t believe this is happening.

“You don’t believe this is happening, dae ye son?”

“Aye, aye, I dae” Because I want it to be so badly.

I start to tell him what’s been going on in his absence but he says he knows and anyway, he’s not been wholly absent.

“I’ve become omnipotent, like I always wanted”

He smiles his wry, kind smile at this and I ask him what has been going on with him, and specifically, why this place looks like the tea-bar on old Paisley station?

“Me and your Uncle Billy share this place as it’s the site where we were most happy on the terrestrial plane. A tiny bit blootered after a Celtic/St Mirren game. We laughed a lot that day, like two fond brothers should. You should treasure the times you spend with your own brother”

He doesn’t say this in an admonishing way, more wise and knowing, like he always was.

“So what else happens in heaven?”

“I got to meet Miles last week and sing with his band”

“Miles Davis?”

“The very same. Lovely man now. Wasn’t always”

I’m blown away by this, then am blown away by the fact that I’m blown away by this as I’m sitting here talking with my Dad who’s been dead eleven years. Surely, now, anything is possible…

“Will you always be around for us Da? I mean you won’t have to leave us at some point?”

“I’ll always be here, son. And we’ll spend more time when you’re up here yourself, but that’s not for some time yet…”

I smile and he smiles back. A bond that has never been broken.

“What did you sing with Miles?”

“My Funny Valentine. I sung it for yer maw. She heard it but she thinks she was dreaming”

After a heavenly visit, by the way, you don’t come down some heavenly stairs to celestial music or anything like that. You get the train back from Paisley to Glasgow where it’s pishing down and a man with a big white beard begs a pound off you on Renfield Street and then disappears in the blink of an eye.