“I would sometimes miss a couple of trains just so I could hear it,” Margaret McCollum told Daily Mail.
When we suffer the loss of someone special to us, we keep all the things that bring back memories of them to make us feel that they are still by our side. A garment, an object, a photo or even their voice.
The latter is what brings Margaret McCollum closer to her husband Oswald Laurence, who passed away in 2007 due to the cardiovascular problems that afflicted him. Despite the sadness this left the Englishwoman, she had the consolation that she could listen to him every day after his death, and in an easy way.
Oswald recorded an advertisement on the London Underground (England) in 1950 that says “mind the gap”, and this is more than enough for Margaret to be happy to feel her husband close every time she uses this means of transport.
Oswald’s voice is specifically heard at Embankment station on the London Underground, a place that became very special to Margaret.
“He was never very far away in my head and in my heart. And knowing that I could go and listen to his voice was simply wonderful. It was a great comfort. I would go and sit on the platform,” the lady told Daily Mail.
Oswald was an actor, boasting a great talent that allowed him to play different roles in comedies and some episodes of the TV series The Saint, with Roger Moore.
“I would sometimes miss a couple of trains just so I could listen to him. Although he could do accents, it was his natural speaking voice: clear, precise and authoritative. His announcement didn’t say ‘please,’ it was perfectly minimalist. So that was what I would do, right up until November 2012, until one day, I heard a different voice,” Margaret told the media outlet.
Later that year, the subway line changed the late husband’s voice to a digitized one, which upset the woman.
Margaret discussed it with the company’s managers, and they agreed to her request. Oswald’s voice returned to the tube line in 2013 and was also sent to her in CD format for her to listen to at home as well. “I always knew that even when he was gone, I could go and listen to him whenever I wanted,” the woman told Daily Mail.