This warm tribute made at Mac's funeral sums up well the feelings of so many of us who knew him and-will miss him. After Care's Collette Bradford, Lyn Clargo and Betty Poulter were among those who attended the funeral.

None of us Lives for himself alone, we all of us are involved in the life of others. That would be especially true in the life of a man like Mac Lang who knew so many people in his lifetime. It is also why death always comes as a shock that part of our own life has gone. In Mac's case, his death was sudden and the shock greater especially since he had coped with diabetes for so many years. Mac will be missed particularly as a husband, father and grandfather, also a great grandfather, brother, member of a large, close and extended family as a friend, associate, and neighbor and in so many other ways to so many people, as news of his death spreads both here and in Australia where some of the family is.

Mac led a very full, interesting, active and enjoyable life. As someone said, he has achieved more in his 56 years than most people do with half as much again. Mac spent most of his early life in Barnardo's at Goldings and Boys Garden City. Thirty-seven years ago he married Katie and moved to Nottingham. In Barnardo's he was trained as a carpenter, but started his own scrap metal business in 1962, building it up from a single barrow to the large and effective family business it now is. No-one could better Mac in a business deal. He was also a great supporter of Barnardo's and having got so much from Barnardo's himself he was able to put as much and more back again. As a member of the National Council of Old Boys and Girls for six years, Mac did a great deal of work for the organisation in his life. He also did much for the young people Barnardo's helps.

He and Katie fostered children and helped in many different ways, very often giving people a start in life they may not otherwise have had. He was an influence for good to many people. Mac had other talents, including being a gifted musician. Equally at home on guitar and organ as on the bugle, he was at one time much in demand at official scout functions and the like, as he was in the pubs and clubs where he was well known at the beginning of the age of rock music and rubbed shoulders with some successful performers. He could have been a professional musician himself, but opted for a successful business career which also enabled him to be with his family which was very important to him. Mac was a man who was full of life and humour ? not the life and soul of the party, but the party itself. Our deepest sympathy goes out to his wife and family.

Malcolm playing the bugle at a Goldings Reunion.

BARNARDO GUILD MESSENGER Winter 1997

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