Mark Lawrenson was instructed by mum who left ‘when you knew fact, you’d do the identical’
Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson has opened up about the heart-wrenching thing his mother said on the day she walked out of their home.
The 67-year-old is a Liverpool legend, having secured five league titles and a European Cup during a remarkable seven-year stint from 1981 to 1988. Before his football career took off, he spent his early years growing up in Preston, where he went to school and did a regular paper round.
Between one of these delivery runs, a young Lawrenson was summoned into the living room by both his parents, which was unusual considering it clashed with his father’s work hours at the post office. His mother Theresa broke the news to him and his elder sister that she would be leaving them.
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A 13-year-old Lawrenson didn’t fully grasp what this meant at the time. Fast forward five decades, and the respected defender still remembers that fateful day.
“My biggest disruption was my mum leaving us,” Lawrenson said during an interview on the Disruptors’ podcast. “My mum left us when I was 13 and my sister was 14 and a half. She met another guy. We don’t know the whole story. She’s passed away unfortunately,” reports the Mirror.
(Image: Getty Images)
“We never knew why. My mum would always say to us ‘I’ll never tell you what happened, but you would have done the same thing’.”
When asked if this had cast a negative light on his father, Lawrenson responded: “Yeah but my dad was a lovely, lovely bloke. So that made it even more difficult. Her leaving was a big thing.
“I remember, I was at St Theresa’s Primary School in Preston and I would run back at 10 past three and I’d have a paper round. I’d run in the house, get a load of ginger biscuits, put them in my pocket for eating while doing my round.
(Image: PA)
“I’d go and pick my papers up and when I ran to the house on this particular day, my mum just popped her head around the lounge door and she said, ‘You need to come in here for a minute’. I was thinking, ‘That’s funny’.
“I got in there and my dad was in there, we had a post office, which my dad was there for 24/7, and I’m thinking ‘Hold on a minute’. They said ‘Your mum’s leaving’ and all that kind of stuff.
“I just stood there and I remember going ‘Alright, can I go and take me paper round now’ because you don’t know what to say at that age. But it all worked out.”
