LINDA GORDON

It IS not every day that one comes across someone who you could truly describe as being a multi-faceted individual: dynamic - full of energy and new ideas; possesing fortitude, displaying courage and strength when facing pain or trouble and above all a personalily brimful of joie de vivre, showing a lively and cheerful enjoyment of life.

Such a person was Linda Gordon.

It was these attributes that made her so popular, not only within her own family and circle of close friends but also among people over a much wider sphere as was witnessed by the large crowd who attended her funeral service, held in the crematorium at Broadley on Wednesday last and conducted by long time friend, John Sandison.

Linda died in Seafield Hospital, Buckie, on Tuesday June 22 after a long and valiant battle with cancer, aged 72.

She was born in March 1938 to Jimmy and Mary Gordon of James Street, Buckpool, the youngest of a family of 10; six girls and four boys. Only two are now left; Isabel in Buckie and John in New Zealand. Linda went three times to New Zealand to visit her relatives there.

After her schooldays at St Peter’s and Buckie High School she worked for a spell at Gauld’s the Chemist on East Church Street before marrying Ian Gauld. Ian’s job in the Post Office saw the family, which in time included Isobel, Mary and Brian, move to various places in England, one of the last places being Saddleworth near Oldham and finally Uppermill, a short distance away.

In Uppermill Linda ran a small restaurant, organised fundraising for Barnardos, assisted in their crèche and gave her time helping others in adult learning. Somehow she found time to run monthly coffee mornings for the local arthritis society.

Despite her many years in England she never forgot where she came from, holding her Scottish roots dear and served a term as President of the Rochdale Caledonian Society where, almost single-handedy, arranged a Bums Supper for some 200 Scottish exiles, encouraging some people from ‘Home’ to take part.

She had long entertained the thought of returning to live in Buckie, the regular trips back north on holiday only helping to stoke the fires of desire to return home and in 2005 this was accomplished.

In Buckie she quickly resumed her Barnardos fund-raising activities, these being now geared to Scotland.

A ladies’ lunch club was established which has become a great success with close on 100 ladies attending the monthly events.

She became a member of the ‘Buckie Blethers’ where she found the opportunity to write poems in the Doric then recite them at various functions and for organisations. It was as a member of the ‘Blethers’ that she played a part in the compilation of a video produced by the Fishing Heritage Centre, doing the voice-over for Portgordon. Of course, Linda had been an early entertainer for along with another long-standing chum Helen Campbell, she had sung at local Rurals as a 15-year-old.

She was a very out-going person, very gregarious, simply enjoying being with folk and taking part and as such she joined and became an active member of the Over-50 Club, the North Church Guild and when fit the Rathven Rural. She loved the live theatre and went through frequently to Aberdeen to watch plays and shows.

On the matter of being fit, Linda throughout her life and prior to the illness that claimed her life, suffered a lot of physical pain which required a considerable number of operations of one kind or another, but always she would come back fighting and smiling.

She had the ability to organise things and it was she who was the prime mover behind one of the first ever school reunions to be held in Buckie, bringing together again 4O-odd friends that had lost touch with each other.

Linda was extremely proud of her six grandchildren - Rebecca, Fiona, Murray, Lorna, James and Robert and loved every moment of their visits to her in Buckie and they adored their Grandma. Her home in Buckie was adorned with their photographs.

They were a very close family, children and grandchildren alike, and Linda was the centre pin. She was loathe to leave them all behind and will be sadly missed, mostly by them but by many others whose lives she touched in the passing.

Linda enjoyed poetry and it is felt, being the person she was, that she would have subscribed to the sentiments expressed in the following verse, passed on recently by a friend, which reads:

If I should go before the rest of you,
Speak not in a Sunday voice, nor inscribe a stone,
But be the people that I have loved and known,
Cry if you must, parting is hell,
But life, goes on, so sing as well.

The Banffshire Advertiser, Tuesday, July 6, 2010, p.5