Kershaw’s chaplain bids a fond farewell

HEADING for a new life . . . Rev Maureen Stirzaker

Rock chick to reverend — now for another adventure
A WOMAN who has helped thousands cope with the loss of a loved one is making an emotional farewell to Oldham.

The Rev Maureen Stirzaker has worked alongside patients and their families at Dr Kershaw’s Hospice in Royton since the day it opened in 1989.

But on Monday, she sets out on a journey which will take her away from the hustle and bustle of a busy borough to semi-retirement, as a member of the ministry serving three sleepy Scottish villages.

The quest for a slower way of life as she reached 59 has torn Maureen away from a job she loves, and an association with Dr Kershaw’s which spans more than two decades. And it was pure fate which threw her into the role. She was asked to help out by hospice chaplain David Sharples, in the run-up to Dr Kershaw’s opening.

“I said no,” recalled Maureen. “I told him the last thing I wanted was be around a lot of dying people.

“It was the last place I would ever have thought to go, but he asked me to try it, so I did.

“I am still here more than 21 years later, it is the most wonderful place to be, that’s why I stayed so long.

“It has given me an opportunity to meet people who have helped me reflect on my life and I have learned so much from them.

“I have adored my life here, I even moved to just around the corner so I could be closer and could walk here whenever I was needed.”

Originally on call 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, Maureen has built up a team of 10 honorary chaplains to ensure there is one at the hospice every day to respond to pastoral needs.

Last week, Maureen was the hospice’s longest serving individual, as a volunteer from before the start, and chaplain for the last 10 years, sticking to her pledge to work twice the number of hours she was paid for as her way of still giving something to the hospice.

This week, she and her long-term friend, Sally Watt, and their lurcher, Gem, will be strolling along a beach in the Fife coastal conservation village of Aberdour, which they have made their home.

She will meander through the grounds of a 12th century castle, help at the 13th century church, once used by Robert the Bruce, tend vegetables, care for a greenhouse, flag down the fish van and generally enjoy a slower pace of life.

“I promised myself I would do it before I was 60, and I have,” said Maureen. “It’s like a dream. The railway station has two greenhouses on the platform for the station master to tend in between trains. Where else would you get that?”

The move won’t be the first life-changing decision taken by the popular chaplain.

As a young woman she was a rock chick and lived for 15 years on tour across Europe and beyond.

She first hit the headlines in Oldham as a 14-year-old schoolgirl who completed an impressive 11-hour non-stop drumming marathon to take the record from 1960s duo The Merseybeats.

This time she will make the change with Sally, who will also be missed by the hospice, after many years working as a volunteer on reception.

Maureen, who is now a volunteer curate in the churches of Aberdour, Burntisland and Inverkeithing, said: “I didn’t think I would but I feel incredibly emotional.

“I will miss my friends from Dr Kershaw’s, from church, and from the theatre group I am part of, but I am going to new beginnings, to a part of the world I love, where I have family and spent many holidays.”

Maureen filled her last week in Oldham with a series of emotional farewells.