Colin Higgins aka Wiggy - Who was Colin Higgins?
Well, He was a friend of mine for many years. We didn’t go to school together or grow up together but sometimes it seamed like we had. I met him in 1984 when I started working for 'Universal Salvage' just outside Bedford. I only stayed there a year but by the time I left we were good friends.
He introduced me to all of his friends and I became as immersed in the car scene as he was. Drag racing at Santapod raceway, custom car shows all over the UK, Many nights of fun down the pub. What more could a boy want?
A few years later I was working for 'Rentall' (now part of the Speedy hire chain) and I knew Colin's recovery business was not making enough money. The bottom had just fallen out of the scrap metal market. He had gone from 'weighing in' cars at £30 each to having to pay for the scrap yards to take them...... His young business was just a victim of the times and that was that.
I managed to swing him a job driving a delivery van for Rentall and for him there
was no looking back. With the exception of coming to France for a bit, he worked there till the end.
He was a funny sort of bloke. On some subjects Jacqui and I were the only people he would confide in. Yet some other subjects were never talked about. We didn’t push him and I think that was how he wanted it.
I can honestly say that I never met anybody who did not like Wiggy; he was that sort of guy. He would do some strange things..... We would not speak for weeks on end sometimes...... But, we were friends and friends do that sometimes.
When We announced that We were off to live in France Colin took 2 seconds to decide that he needed a change in his life and that he wanted to come with us (if that was all right?). Plans were drawn, a viewing trip undertaken and a property purchased. After moving out here in the summer of 2003 everybody was having a great time. But, by January 2004 and after a trip to the UK for Christmas it was plain to see how much Colin missed his life in the UK.
He had trouble telling me this as he didn’t want to let us down but after a very brief conversation on January 3rd I booked him a ferry. Over the next 24 hours (before the ferry sailed) he had perked up no end and I think a great weight had been lifted from him.
Jump forward to early summer 2005 and I found myself knocking on his front door. When he answered I thought he was going to fall over. I guess he thought I would never speak to him again.
I spent 3 hours with him catching up on old times and managed to see him 2 more times during the next few weeks. We talked about everything and it was brilliant, just like old times.
Colin passed away 1 week after my last visit.
When I last saw Colin Higgins last he said he wished he could come back to France some day and see what we had done
I wish that was true
