The Day that Elvis Presley Died

Exactly thirty years ago Elvis Presley died. It was an iconic event like the deaths of President Kennedy or Princess Diana. Everyone who was around at the time, knows where they were what they were doing when the news broke.

I was newly married and living in a flat in Leeds when Kennedy was shot. In Princess Diana’s case, I heard about the car crash when my clock radio came on in the morning. I heard about Elvis over the radio at Southampton General Hospital having given birth to a second son a few hours earlier. It was an easy birth compared with that of his sister twenty months earlier. She was born by caesarean on Boxing Day 1975. I wrote a poem about that when I was doing a creative writing course last year and it’s to be published in an anthology at the end of October. It was a relief to be able to have a normal delivery, the same as I had for my elder son. I have tried to write a poem about my son and Elvis but it hasn’t got to a stage where I would want to share it. He’ll be relieved about that! Anyway, the baby of my family is thirty years old today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAVIN!!!!