Sad news today – the legendary Pat Wainwright has passed away at the age of 85.
She was the lynchpin of every by-election in the 90s, running the front-of-house operation. She would be the person who would greet you when you arrived and the person who would make you go out again or stay and stuff an impossibly huge pile of envelopes.
I first came across her at Littleborough and Saddleworth in 1995.
She greeted us with smiles and very clear instructions about what work we were to do.
She wasn’t afraid to tear a strip of me for doing something wrong either. “You eejit”, she quite justifiably yelled. She certainly didn’t mince her words but I just did better next time. We had an absolute hoot.
One day she was on the phone giving life advice to someone. Exactly the sort of life advice we all need our friends to give us sometimes, in no uncertain terms.
Bob and I had only popped in for an afternoon to the headquarters in Shaw at the start of a week of travelling around the north west and the Lakes. But we had so much fun we ended up spending our entire holiday there. It was Bob’s first by-election and he got RSI from stuffing envelopes. We had a brilliant time and made several trips back there including for the last few days. I met a few people at that by-election who have become friends for life, too.
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