Markethill family raising funds to give back to 'amazing' hospital teams who cared for Bertie

FAMILY of a much-loved Markethill businessman – who passed away a year ago after suffering a stroke – are raising money as a way of giving back to the doctors and nurses for their ceaseless care and compassion.

Bertie Farrell spent 13 days in the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital, and three days on the Stroke Ward.

But having suffered a stroke caused by stress related high blood pressure, which resulted in a massive bleed to his brain, he sadly lost his fight for life on November 23, last year.

Bertie was a local businessman for over 40 years, who owned and operated RJ Farrell Specialist Joinery on the Mowhan Road.

His loss was devastating for the family and they will mark the first anniversary of Bertie’s passing by releasing doves at his graveside.

At the same time, they also hope to help other families who may find themselves in the future attending ICU.

Wife Jacqueline said they wish to use donations in lieu of flowers from the time of Bertie’s funeral to purchase reclining chairs for the use of families attending the ICU and Stroke Wards in the Royal Victoria Hospital and at Craigavon Area Hospital.

She told the Ulster Gazette: “With Covid-19 at present we couldn’t do any face-to-face fundraising, so thought as the donations in lieu were still open we could use that.

“There’s lots of local people that read the Gazette and have purchased Bertie’s joinery in the past and know us as a family. We understand everybody’s struggling at the minute. Money’s hard earned. A lot of people don’t know whether they will be able to keep their jobs.

“This is basically just to take this opportunity to share with anyone who would like to help by donating as a tribute to Bertie and let them know they can do so through the undertaker.”

Jacqueline said staff at the hospital could not do enough for herself and children, Sarah-Jane, Johnathan, Charlotte-Anne, Emma-Louise and James, and they wanted to give something back. She feels that they often do not get the recognition which they deserve.

She added: “It’s important not to lose sight of the fact that we are all grateful for everything that the hospitals do and at the moment they need help. There was a nurse on the stroke ward with us who was moved to tears when Bertie died by the commitment, love and compassion we had shown as a family and she told us, ‘I’m hardened to this. Most relatives don’t stay until the end and it’s just us. It can take time, days, even weeks and they get so very tired’.

“We would like to provide reclining chairs for the ICU Ward and the Stroke Ward in RVH and also the ICU in Craigavon if we can fundraise enough to do that in memory of Bertie.

“He got excellent care in both hospitals. They did everything they possibly could for him. We felt there was a real need for a recliner chair for relatives and we thought this is something positive we could do.”

Jacqueline also hopes to contact suppliers and others Bertie would have been in contact with over his many years in business. He was a great believer in supporting local people and she hopes now that others will take this opportunity to show their support by helping their appeal.

Bertie was “an exceptional man”, and one who prided himself in quality and dedication. He worked hard to provide for his family over the years and loved his children, always believing in taking a holiday each summer to share that special time together. Bertie was so proud of each of them and they loved him very much.

He was also devoted to his eight grandchildren - Shannon, Sarah-Louise, Lily-Anne, John, Reuben, Jonah, Ellie-May and Primrose.

In his long and rewarding working life it had been a natural career path for Bertie to take, as it was very much a family trade, and his own son Johnathan ensures that continues today.

Bertie earned a City and Guilds Craft Certificate in Carpentry and Joinery in 1972 and completed the Advanced course, along with an FTC qualification in Building, in 1974.

He served his time with a local building contractor Jimmy Rolston, and worked from home, until he started in his new workshop which he built with the help of his dad, Jim Farrell, and Gordon Murdock.

Opening in 1976 Bertie then expanded with three further extensions throughout the 1980s and 1990s as his business grew. He was very innovative and was quick to grasp the latest technology, adding a second CNC machine - state-of-the-art equipment for joinery – with the arrival of the 21st Century.

Said Jacqueline: “His main craft was stairs and doors and internal joinery but he did like to make furniture and I am reminded every day in our home of his amazing skills.”

Bertie retired in 2018 but even that did not stop him. The old adage that you can’t keep a good man down certainly rang true. That was acquired and would never leave him.

As Jacqueline explained: “He still got up every morning and went to the workshop. He never gave up. He enjoyed making quality products and catching up on all the craic.

“He was always very innovative and very hard-working. He employed a lot of people over the years that became great friends especially Conrad Wilson and Gwen Ferguson, and trained a lot of young people. We had a French College that sent students over most summers for years from an engineering college to learn about working in a factory setting and, because we had the CNC machinery, it gave them a good opportunity to train on the latest technology. Our local colleges also had regular placements. Bertie had been employing local people right up to the time our son took over in 2016.”

He crafted custom made products for everybody and he had a lot of professional, private customers and contractors from all over Ireland, Scotland and England. When he started in 1976 his first contractor was Sam Geddis, a local builder.

Said Jacqueline: “Bertie had always been in the thick of things. The workshop was his life and through it he supported other local businesses and our local economy. He liked to part-time farm. We always had cattle or some form of animals at home. Church was always a must on Sundays, as he said it was a good way to start the week.

“His father and grandfather were also craftsmen. Carpentry and joinery were in his blood. It comes up through two generations. Bertie was the third generation and now my son is the fourth.

“His mum Nell, when he was small, would have kept turkeys and chickens so he always would have been business minded. As a teenager he worked in Armagh Golf Club on a Saturday with the greenkeeper. He helped him with maintenance and collected golf balls, the ones that got lost, and he turned them into pocket money! His woodworking teacher Hugh Gates who had a very positive influence on him played golf and was glad of his finds.”

When Jacqueline said he crafted custom products for everybody she was not joking.

Indeed, his second-to-none reputation saw him being given the royal seal of approval – from the King of Malaysia!

“That was very exciting for us,” recalled Jacqueline. “We had, through a building contractor, got the job for this luxury property in Halfmoon Street in London. It was a complete refurbishment.

“Bertie crafted, along with Johnathan, the stairs and the doors which were all made in the workshop in Markethill and taken over to London and fitted. We stayed at the Taj Hotel in London, so that he could oversee things and make sure that everything was right.

“The King of Malaysia came in while we were in the building with his entourage. It was nice to see him, but we didn’t bother them. You couldn’t really get very close, but we did get to see what he looked like. His wife had accommodation at our hotel so we got to see her too!”

Bertie took great pride in making the quality joinery for London, crafting for royalty!

And he not only enjoyed crafting but he finding out all about his timber.

Added Jacqueline: “His passion was his woodworking and he went to Wisconsin with my dad, James Neville, in 2007, to see the timber mill where his oak was being produced, turning it from a tree to a plank.”

It has been a difficult year for Jacqueline and the Farrell family.

And yet at the same time, the devoted wife and mother has been able to complete a vocational qualification – which she had started shortly before Bertie’s passing – and has also used her new skills to help at the hospital.

That came in the form of answering a very practical appeal made by a family who were attending the hospital – under very difficult circumstances – late last year.

Jacqueline shared details of how, having raised her family, she decided to learn new skills - and how too, in the midst of it all, her life was turned upside down through the indescribable loss of her spouse and soulmate.

“I’d always been interested in aromatherapy and wanted to learn more about holistic medicine so I’d started a course in September after our holidays. I had just caught up with all my college work on the night before Bertie took his stroke and we enjoyed a cup of tea together.

“I arrived at Lisburn college and was just starting the class when I got a phone call at five to nine. I talked to Bertie on the phone and that was the last conversation I had with him. I remember him laughing and saying ‘I’m like an old drunk man. I’ve gone down here, and I can’t get up’. And I said, ‘I’ll be at the hospital as soon as you are’. That was the last conversation I had with him.”

Jacqueline continued with college and admits she does not know how she managed to do it.

But she did, as she added: “I managed to qualify in June. Many prayers were answered and I collected my certificate on the 30th of October; Love & Memories Aromatherapy was now official, and then the appeal came in. My daughter Sarah-Jane sent me a WhatsApp of the appeal for the Royal Victoria from the Ferguson family. They were in the ICU at the same time as Bertie and our two families became friends.

“Because they had such close contact with the nurses there and her daughter’s treatment was ongoing, they put an appeal out on Facebook. The unit needed shower gel, shampoo, tea, coffee, biscuits and other items. So she started a GoFundMe page and raised a brilliant £1,174 just literally over the weekend.

“So I said, ‘right, I will make uplifting prescription shower gel, I’ll make body wash, shampoo and conditioner. I’ll do that as a donation to thank them for the care they gave Bertie’.

“Now I’d also really like to get reclining chairs, whatever we can afford, and I would appreciate help from anyone who would like to make a difference too. It will maybe ease some other relative’s nightmare, by providing some comfort. That is what I would like to do for Bertie - I’d like to follow that through and help other families.

“Now with COVID-19, right in the front line are the ICU. We were so grateful as a family for all their care. They are just amazing. We have nothing but praise for them. They go above and beyond what’s needed.

“So, if I can help at all I know that’s what Bertie would want. We stayed with Bertie right to the end. We were all with him. The Lord took him home at 23.22. We even know the minutes. It was a time that we will never forget as we experienced the miracle that is death and took comfort from the certainty that it is not the end. He was never left on his own. We were always there and surrounded him with love and prayer. The hospital, they accommodated us with what they had so we could have that precious time and our new Minister, the Rev Munce, brought spiritual strength in prayer and the comfort of a little wooden Cross that he gave each of us.

“When we think back on it they were amazing. I really cannot praise or thank them enough. My heart breaks now when I think of all those who can’t be with their loved ones at the end because of COVID-19. There are no words that could describe their pain. We were blessed and are so very thankful that we were able to be there for Bertie and to carry out his funeral wishes of having horses and a carriage, his favourite red roses, for ringing the bell at the Chapel of Ease and for all who attended the church service in celebration of his life.

“Bertie achieved a lot of positive things in his life, too numerous to mention. He never gave up, even after having a heart attack in 2009 and prostrate cancer diagnosed in 2010. Following treatment in the Cancer Centre Belfast in 2018, he helped raise money for them as a choir member of the Chapel of Ease Markethill with a BBQ that raised £839.50 in June 2019 for their fund.

“We all need positivity at this time. People like to help. I know they do. We are blessed to live among people that are kind, generous, supportive and thoughtful. We need that more than ever during this pandemic.

“We just really want to include our community and try to do some good by bringing comfort to other families going through trauma.”

Anyone who would like to make a donation can do so for Intensive Care Unit, Royal Victoria Hospital, and Stroke Award, with cheques made payable to K G Cheevers & Son, Funeral Directors, 28 Dobbin Street, Armagh, BT61 7QQ, telephone (028) 3752 3984. Donations will close on Christmas Eve, Alternatively, visit the GoFundMe page by typing gf.me/u/y8irsr into your internet address bar. Thursday, December 24. ‘We will always love and miss our Star in Heaven’.