'Time had taken them' but football means they live on
A last-minute winner, a comeback, an away day for the ages, a cup win, a league title.Just some of football's sweetest elements. They do not arrive too frequently, they punctuate a season if you are lucky and yet, though they fleetingly come a fan's way, their memory lasts a lifetime.Perhaps only one thing can make such moments of joy more significant - who you share them with.A close friend, a spouse, a family member - a connection can take one's emotion and increase it by orders of magnitude.Shortly before Liverpool's European Cup win in 2019, fan and renowned Kopite Stephen Monaghan formed part of an emotional video released by the club. In it, he explained such occasions took him to his father's graveside, where he would remember, ponder and wish he could share another day in the sun, another day of shared feeling, another day of being together, with their beloved Reds.The big occasions crystallise the mind. The hullabaloo of daily life kind of stops because big things do that to you. The subsequent thinking space creates room to consider what those no longer with us would make of it all. What would they say? Could you feel their happiness? What would you give to do so? Such thoughts can be warming and cruel. You want them though, for reasons that run really deep.Within the sensory overload of fireworks, flares and joy at Sunday's title-clinching day for Liverpool, one fan showed me a bit of what was going on inside.Supporter Stephen Davies pointed to a bracelet he wore, one sporting an inscription which read 'Redmen gang of four... YNWA'.He explained his friends Peter Walsh, Larry Snell and Tommy Lawton - all pictured with a young Stephen below - were no longer with us. Time had taken them. Stephen was left with memories of trips around the country and continent with a group of friends who had seen, felt and shared the joys of success and the tragedy of Hillsborough.I asked him if he would think of them on this day and a subtle nod, illuminated with watery eyes, answered emphatically. They were alive in his thoughts.There are thousands of Liverpool fans celebrating today and millions who no longer can.Football, its highs and the human heart have a way of making sure those lost souls live on. What can be more special than that?
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