Headlines & Deadlines: A Memoir

By John L. Gibson

Five years in the making, this book was inspired by John L. Gibson’s twin granddaughters, Meredith Grace and Courtney Faith. For as long as they can remember, the twins have loved listening to their maternal grandfather’s stories about his boyhood in Scotland, a faraway country famed for its resilience and friendly people. The author hopes he has acquired knowledge and experience throughout his life that is worth passing on to his beloved children, grandchildren and their children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Apr 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781483497471

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Gibson

Copyright © 2019 John L. Gibson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

This book is a work of non-fiction.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-9748-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-9747-1 (e)

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date:   04/02/2019

Author’s Note to Readers

December 17, 2018

W ho is John Lennie Gibson and why is he writing a book?

I am a 74-year-old retired journalist and communications executive who always enjoyed what I did for a living. In many ways I lived a charmed life, retiring at 65 with no regrets.

I am Ann Marie’s husband; Angela Dawn and John Joseph’s father; Lisa and Chris’s father-in-law and I am the proud grandfather of Kaitlyn, Meredith, Courtney, Connor and Madeleine. I am a brother to Jim, Jo and Robert and cousin to a score of folks in Canada, Scotland and England.

A keen observer, problem-solver and change management leader, I am fortunate to have a few close friends, several acquaintances and a handful of people who will call me a mentor.

I am writing this autobiography to leave a record of John and Ann Marie’s lives and activities for future generations of our family. I hope I have acquired knowledge and experience throughout my life that is worth passing on to our children, grandchildren and their children.

My goal is to motivate, encourage and teach. Pretty much the same things I did as I worked my way up through the ranks of the newspaper business. As a reporter and editor, I faced deadlines every day of my working life and wrote thousands of headlines for newspapers in Scotland and Canada.

As I write this on my MacBook Pro laptop computer, it is the late fall of 2018. When I was born, there were no colour televisions, no home computers, iPods, iPads or cell phones. There was no internet. It was a vastly different world than it is today.

Someday, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will ask questions about their grandparents, John and Ann Marie Gibson. This is where they will find the answers.

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My inspiration for writing this book came from our twin granddaughters, Meredith and Courtney John, and I’ll tell you more about them later. They used to plead with me to tell them about when I was young.

They would snuggle up beside me and listen intently as I told them what it was like growing up in post-war Glasgow.

Tell us more, Granda, they would say in unison when I finished one of my stories. At one point, I thought of using Tell us more, Granda, as the title for my memoirs.

Preface

I started writing this book in 2013 but I didn’t give it much time in 2014, probably because I was pre-occupied with other things. First, my best friend of 46 years, Bill Muir, died in January after a long battle with three different cancers.

Then my wife was diagnosed with dementia, the scourge of the 21st century.

Then came a double-whammy as the year was ending. My mother died in Glasgow’s Western Infirmary at the age of 94. She hadn’t been ill but was taken to hospital after a fall in her bedroom.

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Sarah (Sadie) Gibson at age 92 in 2012

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Sarah (Sadie) at age 19 in 1939

Thanks to my brothers, Jim and Robert, I was able to talk to my mom in her hospital bed via Skype. I could tell she was going downhill fast. Ann Marie and I arrived in Glasgow on Nov. 17 and my mother passed away the next day, Robert’s birthday. Was she waiting for us to get there, as some people told me? That may well be true.

Finally, three days before Christmas, Ann Marie’s only sister, Carol, died at 64 after a very short struggle with esophageal cancer. Carol was still mourning the loss in 2011 of her husband, Gary Addison, 62, who died of ALS, the same disease that claimed the life of Ann Marie’s mother in 1965.

As far as this book is concerned, my biggest disappointment is that Ann Marie will never read it.

She has frontotemporal dementia, a devastating condition that damages the areas of the brain associated with personality, memory, behaviour and language. She no longer reads magazines, newspapers or books. At the time of this writing, Ann Marie is non-verbal.

My family and close friends saw it coming before me. I think I was in denial about the subtle changes in my wife’s memory, personality and behavior.

You need to do something, friends and