Sponsored by
From coal miner to minister with Mother Teresa
THE tale of a miner who left a life down the pit to become a minister in the slums of India where he met a young Mother Teresa has been retold by his daughter.
Margo Rutter has written a book called Coals to Calcutta: The True Story of the Daughter of a Preacher Man, which is about the life of her father, former Blackhall man Jim Parkinson.
Jim was born in Trimdon in 1925 but went to live in Blackhall when he was seven.
He worked at Blackhall Colliery for nine years from the age of 14.
A parishioner at the Blackhall Methodist chapel, in Middle Street, Jim quit the pits at 23 and trained as a minister and missionary, before going to work in the slums of Calcutta, in India, in 1953.
Margo, 50, said: "He was happy being a pitman. He just got this calling.
"It was against all the odds because he was uneducated as his school life was a bit of a disaster."
After studying theology in Manchester, Jim, along with his wife-to-be Irene, a nurse also from Blackhall, took the plunge and went to work in Calcutta.
Blackhall-born Margo, a reflexologist who now lives in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, said: "One of the reasons for me to write the book was to try and understand my parents coming from the local village where they knew everybody to wanting to go and help in India.
"Dad wanted to help with social welfare, as well as preaching. He came to understand the sharing of faith rather than converting people."
Mother-of-two Margo, who is married to Garry, added: "Dad worked with Mother Teresa, or rather she was working for him.
"He set up leprosy clinics and Mother Teresa was forming some leprosy clinics as well so they joined forces in that area."
Margo, whose aunt Evelyn Robinson still lives in Blackhall and whose cousin Keith Hewson and his wife Carol live in Wolviston, said: "I remember meeting her as a young girl and holding her hand.
"She had rough hands, not soft ones."
The Parkinsons returned to the UK in the late 1950s after contracting dysentery and suffering weight loss, during which time Margo was born.
They soon went back to Calcutta and spent another four years in the poverty-stricken city before returning to their homeland.
Jim preached until 1990 and the family moved to Yorkshire and Middlesex before settling in Worcestershire.
Jim died in 1999 and Irene passed away in 2005.
Margo's book, priced 7.99 is available from Troubador Publishing.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Hartlepool
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Light sleet
Temperature: 0 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -3 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South
