Williams Page #11

I think secretly she

would've quite liked to have been TP.

Virginia was diagnosed

with cancer in the summer of 2010,

I think she knew in her

heart of hearts that

it was gonna get her and it

was just a question of when.

She was sort of taken

for granted in as much as you know

she was hail, hearty and fit

and well, and Frank wasn't

so it was not in anyone's mind I guess

that she was as vulnerable

as she obviously was.

I miss her,

she was a lovely lady

and I don't know how Frank copes

without her because

he doesn't have a lot of people

to go home to talk to anymore,

it's quite sad really.

I think it affected him

very deeply um,

more deeply possibly

than he would've imagined

and I think that he probably came

after her death to realise

just how much he loved her.

She was the foundation of.

Frank's life outside motor racing,

it was the only thing

you know and uh... he did say,

I'm not bothering to go home anymore",

now Ginny's gone.

He'd just sleep

in his flat in the factory,

he didn't bother to go home,

why bother'?

I, I kip down the corridor

most nights of the week.

Um...

Down the corridor

in the factory?

Yeah.

- How are you?

- Good actually.

Good.

It's lovely and warm in here for you Dad.

I turned the heating up.

You haven't read

the book, have you, pops?

No, I must make

the effort, so, yeah.

You should, you should make

the effort, it's an amazing book.

- So you must read it.

- Yeah I will, yeah ok.

You should do,

although it is quite sad, it is quite sad.

'Sometimes I dream that Frank

is running through the Berkshire lanes.

Everything is alright.

Early in the morning in that split second

between sleeping and waking

I sometimes forget,

as one might forget what day it is,

that Frank is paralysed

then the knife blade of

reality twists sharply in my stomach,

jerking me back to the present,

how must Frank feel in that

same moment of semi-consciousness?

What a nightmare to wake up to,

to be a prisoner within your own body,

not even to be able to get out of bed

until someone else moves you.

Frank also dreams,

he says that usually in his

dreams too he is running,

he has made a magical recovery

and everyone is astonished

to see him return to fitness

and turns to watch

as he races past them.'

'We are and always have been two

quite different characters,

Frank has never wasted

his time bemoaning the past,

it's one of his many strengths, the

past means nothing to him,

whether it's a

world championship won or lost,

or a road

accident that crippled him,

it's yesterday, it's boring,

today and tomorrow are what count.

I in contrast am happiest with the past,

I prefer the past to the future

that frightens me now.

What happened to my dreams?

I wanted us to grow old together,

I wanted to die in Frank's arms,

I'm gonna start crying.

'We have both grown

as a result of the experience,

but if a fairy godmother offered to

wave her magic wand

and take us back to the way things

were when I first married Frank,

I would not hesitate for a second,

I would happily exchange the houses,

the executive jets,

the smart hotel rooms, the gold Rolexes

for just one night in a scruffy bedroom

anywhere in the world

with a selfish, funny, unsympathetic,

unreliable, charismatic man I married.

I laugh much more than I used to,

it helps to stop me crying.'

Mm.

- It's so sad.

- Don't start crying.

Mm.

I haven't read it since mum died

and it's about how she will go

to her grave heart broken

over what happened to you.

You should be very proud.

What about going to the races?

Do you think you'll still be able

to go to the Grand Prix's this year?

Why not?

I dunno, doctor's orders?

I'm fine.

I mean I'm paralysed but I'm,

I probably, I spend,

I haven't had a day off work,

I don't think

I've had a day off work in years,

I just don't get ill, never have done.

Frank's personality hasn't changed,

what he can physically do has,

but his approach to his racing,

his love of Formula 1,

his obsession with it

is just the same now,

as it has been as long

as I've known him.

So how does

a man like that retire?

He's not going to retire,

he's going to die on the job.

Well Frank will never stop.

Yeah he will stop

when he closes his eyes.

Do you think you'll see

Williams on top again,

in your lifetime?

Yes, certainly possible.

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