“WHAT IF”
These are just two little words but they can mean so much.
When you get older and start to look back on your life, you get to thinking just how important these two words are in all of our lives and they certainly have been in mine.
WHAT IF my father had not volunteered to go on that mission in Normandy in August 1944 with his commanding officer, the one from which he did not return, leaving his young wife, (my mother) a widow, and me without a father?
WHAT IF my mother had not met a wonderful man when I was five years old who became my stepfather and treated me like his own son for the rest of his life?
WHAT IF the caretaker at my school had not been a scout for Liverpool Football Club who persuaded my parents to allow me to travel 360 miles to Liverpool for a trial at such a young age of 15?
WHAT IF I had stuck to my original decision to sign for my local team Aberdeen FC and turn down the trial period at Liverpool FC?
WHAT IF I had not performed well in the two week trial period at Liverpool and it had been unsuccessful?
WHAT IF Bill Shankly had not taken the job at Liverpool FC?
WHAT IF I had not decided to move lodgings from Anfield Road to Lilley Road in Fairfield with Peter Thompson in 1963?
WHAT IF my future wife Carole to whom I have now been married for 52 years had not been best friends with our neighbour’s daughter in Lilley Road Fairfield?
WHAT IF I had been given my chance in the first team at Anfield and Bill Shankly had not sold me back to Aberdeen in 1965?
WHAT IF I had evaded the tackle in training which tore my cruciate ligaments at Aberdeen and ended my very promising career at Aberdeen in 1966?
WHAT IF Bill Shankly had not stepped in to save my career by recommending me to Port Elizabeth City FC in South Africa when I was out of work with nothing to fall back on?
WHAT IF the intruder who broke in to our apartment in Port Elizabeth in South Africa in 1968 and who thrust a knife at my chest had been more determined or I had been less fit?
WHAT IF Bill Shankly had not been willing to recommend me to Tranmere Rovers for a one month trial period on my return to the UK from South Africa in 1968?
WHAT IF I had not managed to justify Bills faith in my ability by performing so well in my debut game v Derby County that the club signed me on a two year first team contract at half time enabling me to return permanently to the UK from South Africa?
WHAT IF when I eventually finished my football career with no experience of anything in life other than football I had not seen the advert for a Sales Representative job in the Liverpool Echo?
WHAT IF I had not eventually turned around and returned to the Adelphi Hotel after initially walking out when seeing over 60 other candidates waiting to go in to the group interview.
WHAT IF I had not landed the job against all then odds (Bill Shankly’s written reference saying he would stake his life on my character helped)
WHAT IF I had not gone on to forge a lifetime career in sales in the years ahead securing the long term future of my family?
WHAT IF my two sons had not met and married two wonderful girls giving us four amazing Grandsons between them?
WHAT IF my amazing wife Carole had not received the most wonderful treatment by the blood specialists, consultants and nursing staff at Arrowe Park Hospital ensuring she survived and overcame stage three Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and remains in full remission today nine years later (THAT WAS THE GREATEST WHAT IF OF ALL)
I am convinced that all of the above events happened for a reason and had any one of these events not happened, or happened differently, my life and everything in it, including the lives of my wonderful family and extended family would have been changed forever.
I am so grateful it has all turned out the way it has, I have been so very lucky. Each of us in our lives must have experienced these WHAT IF moments, these are just a few of mine.
It certainly focuses your mind when you think back on your life and how destiny works.
George Scott
2018