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THIS LIFE: Medicine man
IM Garretts has been senior curator of the Thackray Medical Museum, next to St James' Hospital, Beckett Street, Leeds, since September 2008 but there's more to him than meets the eye.
A lifelong Manchester United supporter, (he met his wife in the football stands), he collects Clash records and is on first name terms with the man who inspired the popular novel The Da Vinci Code. Neil Hudson met him.
My first job was working as an au pair in Finland. I left university in 1978 with a degree in chemistry and wanted to get a job in industry but wasn't successful, so I went to Finland, where being a male au pair was not unusual. I lived with a family for three or four months and saw the Boomtown Rats in a rock concert while I was there. I came back to England and still couldn't find a job and then my dad said, 'Why don't you get a job in museums?', because at the time that was my hobby and I thought, 'He's right'. I phoned Salford Museum and it just so happened they were looking for new people, so I was lucky.
I am most proud of marrying my wife, Janet. We met 24 years ago at a Manchester United game. I was introduced to her by a friend and remember planning the moment I would first ask her out. When the moment came, I asked her but at the same time there was a shot on goal and the crowd roared. Janet turned round and said, 'What?' For a moment, I wasn't sure if she meant 'what?', as in, I didn't hear you, or 'what?', as in perish the thought. But I asked her again and she said yes.
The best thing about Leeds is how friendly the people are. I'd always worked in Manchester and not really met Yorkshire folk but I have to say I like the people. I notice they say thank you to train conductors and get up to give elderly people their seats.
To relax I like reading, going to the theatre, walking and cycling.
I could not live without my handkerchief. I feels strange if I ever go anywhere and I forget to take a hanky.
The best piece of advice I can give is to check things for yourself, which I got from a friend, Henry Lincoln, who co-wrote Holy Blood Holy Grail, the book upon which The Da Vinci Code novel was based. I think the other piece of advice I like came from Eric Cantona, who said you do not learn from the things you do right, you learn from the things you do wrong.
The last time I cried was while watching the film Mamma Mia! There's a song in there called Slipping Through My Fingers, which was never an Abba hit and it's a mother singing about a child growing up and that made me cry.
I'm very mindful of the passage of time and that makes me quite melancholy at times. Once a day is gone, it's gone forever. I am always worried about not making the most of things and sometimes I end up not making the most of things because I am worrying about not making the most of things.
If I could meet anyone living or dead it would be Joe Strummer, lead singer of The Clash. I have met him several times but I would like to meet him for longer. I'm a huge Clash fan and have a big vinyl collection. I used to go to the odd after-concert party and I once took along a playlist from their record company CBS but it was in French and he said to me, 'You really are a fan, aren't you?' He added me to his address book and said he would send me things but I never got anything. If I had to pick someone else, it would be Napoleon or Brian Clough.
Something that might surprise people is that my wife and I have been featured in promotional videos for Manchester United. We used to go to all the matches, including the away games. If the ticket office opened at 9am, we would be there at 3am and would queue for six hours to make sure we got tickets. We even had a car with the number plate M7UTD.
The Thackray Museum is open daily 10am-5pm, ring: 0113 244 4343; www.thackraymuseum.org.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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