Why Fleetwood great gran's lockdown song proved a hit

Great grandmother Kath D’Souza felt so fed up after six weeks of coronavirus lockdown she made up a song and posted a video of it on Facebook to her family.
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Great grandmother Kath D’Souza felt so fed up after six weeks of coronavirus lockdown she made up a song and posted a video of it on Facebook to her family.

With her own heartfelt words written down on a sheet of paper, and a tune borrowed from an old folk song she recalled from her childhood, she sang about missing her close-knit family during social isolation and brave NHS workers.

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But 77 year old Kath, of Fleetwood, had no idea just how many people would get to hear her tuneful lament.

Kath D'Souza's song made a big impressionKath D'Souza's song made a big impression
Kath D'Souza's song made a big impression

When her grandson, Daniel O’ Doherty, shared the video with family and few friends, social media really lit up and in just a couple of days it had been viewed by thousands of people.

And it seems her song has struck a chord with many of those who haven’t been out in weeks, because of the lockdown, and who miss their loved ones and their normal life.

Kath, a member of the folk group at St Mary’s RC Church in Fleetwood (inset), said: “I know I don’t have things nearly as bad as some people during this terrible time, I know we have to stay safe.

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“Every time I watch the news there are more awful stories and our wonderful NHS staff are getting ill too, and dying.

“I do miss my family terribly - my daughter brings food for me but she has to stand far back and I can’t hug her.

“Now nothing feels the same and I really miss the normal things.

“So I just wrote a few things down about how I felt and then I decided to turn it into a song and send it to my daughter - the tune is from a very old song I knew when I was a child but I can’t remember its name.

“I didn’t expect it to be seen by so many people!”

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Blackburn-born Kath, who has lived in Fleetwood since 1994, has two children, Anthony and Caroline, six grandchildren, two step-grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Caroline’s son, Daniel, 20, of Wrea Green, said: “As soon as I saw the video I ran and got my mum and we both started crying, she’s never written a song or done anything like that before.

“I just wanted to share it with other family members and suddenly thousands of people had seen it.

“People seem to really like it, I think they understand how she feels about everything at the moment.”

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