Donations in remembrance of Pauline for St. Richard's Hospice and Cancer Research UK may be made by clicking on the button below or sent to Merstow Green Funeral Home, Evesham WR11 4BD. Speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Mike was famous for his practical jokes. He suggested every day until the weekend. (I had no idea that he had married and had two children.). Please accept my Sincere and Deepest Sympathy. They weren't really with me.". Mike signed a contract with them not to race for anyone else. Mike left for a few minutes. Race day was cold and wet - about 40 and drizzling. I said, "I know what we can do." He wanted me to go home and get my passport and a few things and meet him at the airport. If you're at work, you should probably save it or print it out for later. When I had read the racing magazines I had seen a few pictures of him wearing a helmet and goggles. He said that in life he used to play music to calm his nerves. This was the first Canadian Grand Prix and was so discounted by the racing press that the usual crowd of reporters and others didn't bother to attend. While he was gone Ralph told me that Mike had a ritual of polishing his goggles endlessly to concentrate his mind before a race. He wasn't that cold! But, I believe that his soul was not in his body during those two days and so he didn't suffer. Being back home I felt more connected to my old life and looked up a lot of old friends. He often said that my not recognizing him was a great gift because he knew he could trust me. I was shown things that I was told I had promised to do before I came into this life and emerged determined to fulfil those promises. He hid it under a carefully maintained veneer of joviality. Then it happened again and he repeated the question a little more insistently. David and Family, I have just heard the Heartbreaking news that your dear Mother ( Pauline ) has passed away. I realize that my story may havft the impression that I was somehow opposed to Mike's racing — far from it. Mike went into great detail about leaving gifts of cakes and ale in certain places. Some of his friends were racing cars or going into racing them. He asked me to have breakfast with him, then he suggested lunch, dinner, etc.. With each suggestion I kept explaining that I had commitments at work. I said, "I've never liked that place." Mike introduced us on the telephone. To be the kind of wife that I wanted to be I would have had to leave my job and devote myself completely to my life with Mike. ", I asked him if it was at Nürburgring and he said it was. “We have to really risk it to overtake them. Mike says that he has more in common with the mechanics, but that they don't understand why a driver would want to spend time with them. Life means all that it ever meant, it is the same as it ever was. I probably made the biggest mistake of my life by not going back to London with Mike. I asked him if he would play for me. (The 500-4 actually had a six-speed transmission. "What are you saying then?" Love you mum". Amazingly we hadn't been interrupted during the whole evening. Mike said that he needed me. ", I emphasize that I was laughing when I said that. Like all of us he didn't want to be hurt again. "But", he said, "it was mutual - they didn't give a damn about me whether I was hurt, tired, worried or cold. He made some naughty remarks. He was teasing me saying something like "Are you still trying to save the world?" I think one of them might have been Gary Hocking because he said one was a very good friend who had switched over to cars from bikes and been killed racing. Legendary motorcycle racer and Formula 1 driver Mike Hailwood was a hero. Let me begin then before the beginning of Mike and me. I asked as my Japanese friend faded away. Sometime around the middle of March I sent him a birthday card. I tried to correct him gently. I started to call him several times but never did. Then factor in the wind chill of over 160mph winds from the weather plus the speeds of the bikes. Once I said, "You're never going to let me forget that, are you?" I said, "Hello" and started talking with him. I hadn't told another soul about my near-death experience at that point. I put the lock button down on the doors. That was Mike's secret to tell or not to tell. I’d knock on his door... “I have the desire and the level to continue to be in the premier class. He also gave me a stack of magazines to read. I have tried to write an ending to our story. His father was probably the most powerful force in Mike's life. I said, "If you slide over to the passenger side and put your legs up on the seat I'll sit between your legs." There are five speeds. They just wanted to go back to their mates and brag that they had been with Mike Hailwood. What greater sacrifice could there be than not marrying my soul mate? The only thing that had really been fulfilling in his life, the only place where he felt at home was in bike racing. I asked. The first one happened shortly after he died. ", I laughed and replied, "Well he looked lonely." A little after midnight the reception was breaking up. “I negotiated my renewal with Kuwata. She said they were thinking of calling in a psychic. Since then I have tried to live my life according to what I saw and learned that day. Mike said that he knew that I probably thought he used them. I was in a terrible car accident - so terrible that I died, went to heaven and came back. He says that the drivers don't even sit at the same table in their hotel. I asked him if he minded that I couldn't drive and he said that he drove enough for both of us. One night he mentioned it again and pressed for an answer. There were 8 of us - all about the same age sitting at one table. ", Rossi: "It was great to be in the lead in a race again", Rossi can't resist Ferrari: "how great to get back on the Beast", Vinales: “If the Hondas are ahead in the race, it’ll be a disaster”, Ben Bostrom and Herrin at Laguna in the Drag Specialties King of the Baggers race, Crutchlow: “If I were to stop racing now, I’d have no regrets”, Mir is leading the Championship with Suzuki without yet winning a race, Nakagami confirms: all Honda RC213Vs will be the same in 2021, Rabat: “I’m not inferior to most of the MotoGP riders”, Elias set to leave Suzuki at the end of the season. I sat on it and immediately there was a problem. Nine time world champion Hailwood was 41 and was officially retired when he and his daughter were killed in a car accident in England on March 23, 1981. The last win on a Norton in the UK and later anywhere ? He had a few friends in car racing, but nothing like the extended family that he had in bike racing. He described it in such detail that he made me see it in my mind's eye. I even went to Nassau to meet his father, Stan. Then finally he asked if I was going to go to the races on Saturday. I could only slide to one side and put one foot on the ground. He had a passion for the Isle of Man that was contagious. The starting point was the former Norton factory in Aston, Birmingham, then on to Portway, where the accident occurred, followed by a service at the church in Tanworth-in-Arden. ", The second is, "It was one of those damn lorries." In the end I lost my courage. Pauline Hailwood, wife of Mike, passed away after a long illness, on Saturday, June 13. He offered to fund any project I wanted if I would marry him. He liked to tease me by reminding me that I had said that I wouldn't walk across the room to meet him. Then she said, "He says he has three things he wants to tell you. He said that I had left one morning and didn't come back. The Guys back home thought they might beat Mike without the MV 500 Much loved wife of the late Mike Hailwood. While racing for Surtees Mike rescued Clay Regazzoni who was unconscious and trapped in his blazing car during the South African Grand Prix. I told him about my near-death experience and how I felt that I was to be alone for about 10 years from that event (8 years to go from 1967 - interestingly both Mike and I married in 1975 - but not each other). Hailwood was busy trying to make a go of a motorcycle dealership in the UK, owned with racer and … He thanked her and said that he didn't expect to be bored. At the end of the service the minister who was a Scottish woman began giving messages to people in the congregation. I was startled and looked in the direction of the lights for a second. A stunning redhead came over to our table and asked for his autograph. I was smiling at his persistence. Some people that die young live life fuller than others who hang around for a century. He had little interest in the technical side of racing and joked that now he could stop worrying about it because he had his personal engineer. "When I was 18 I was starting racing in South Africa. One of the unexpected things that we had in common was that we had both been to very good schools and been unhappy there - I was teased because I was a scholarship student in a school for girls from wealthy families. He would make comments to the effect that Mike was turning into an old man. He hit his stride and was beginning to have some success. After they married, they settled in New Zealand. ", "So", he asked, "Where are you going to watch the race?" I was wearing black pants, sweater and ski jacket that day which he thought would look like leathers from a distance. I said, "I guess I'm old-fashioned, but that's the way I feel." The temperature felt well below zero to the racers. The 'bubble' does not protect, zero-contagion does not exist. We talked about my work and how gratifying it was. ( Fond memories ), Harry Sheldon and Janette Underhill. One Saturday night after a day of racing some of us went to a nightclub in Durban. He asked if I would rather be over there. (Hearing that tears flooded my eyes. He asked if I was enjoying talking to him and I replied, "Oh yes, very much so!". I was fighting back tears. n° 558 del 30/12/2003 c/o Tribunale di Roma, Buffer Overflow srl © Partita IVA: 09505981002 - Tutti i diritti Riservati, Fondatore e Direttore (Responsabile): Paolo Scalera. But there is no ending. 8W, part of Forix.Autosport.com, is a motorsport history portal. I really believe that Mike was the most profoundly lonely person I have ever met. I felt I had no choice but to tell Stan the whole story of my near-death experience and what I felt I had to do with my life. The three races at Laguna Seca will be the last ones for the 2017 MotoAmerica Champion on the GSX-R 1000. I saw my future - or at least part of it. An annual 'Mike Hailwood Memorial Run' was discontinued after the 2011 event. We should all be so blessed to live such a fulfilling life. "Maybe if I lived your kind of life I wouldn't have to die and I could live to be an old geezer.". Then he hugged me for a few moments without saying anything. Dedicated to the memory of Pauline Hailwood, A Service to Celebrate and Give Thanks for Pauline's Life, Extract from a poem by Henry Scott Holland. I discovered that I had a talent for math and science. My interests progressed to F1 suspensions, tires, circuit pavements and safety features. Mike had grown that to cover the evidence or a recent accident. I had lost track of which birthday this would be. First Ronaldo, now Rossi: and of course 'The Show Must Go On', Alex Marquez's podium reveals the 'trick' of this surprise-filled World Championship, Off the track, Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi: from the 2008 'wall' to teamwork at Sepang, GPone MotoGP, Bar Sport at Sepang with Carlo Pernat. He replied that he was trying to prove that he wasn't a womanizer and "besides, you're not a race track dolly. She passed away peacefully in her sleep on saturday morning. Mike was in the back of the pits nearly doubled over with laughter. By this time he was developing a fever and a poor colour. My family lived in a village on the edge of Toronto, Canada. Unless you speak Japanese it must have been a very limited conversation. Mike was a man of extraordinary depth and sensitivity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? The next race was to start in a little over 30 minutes. On the day of the practice Mike wanted to play a trick on Giacomo. Now she is with her beloved Mike and Michelle.