Wrexham, Weddings, and a Family Weekend

It’s a bank holiday weekend. May bank holidays usually have us taking part in the Sweeps Festival, but this one is different. The six of us are driving to Wrexham to celebrate Hannah’s brother getting married on Monday. The rest of her family arrive on Sunday. We wanted to stretch the weekend into something more than a timetable and a wedding, so we left today.

I have been looking forward to this trip since the moment Hannah told me about the wedding. I love Wrexham, the football club, and the story. I watched every season of the documentary. I have followed the rise from the National League to League Two, then to League One, then to the Championship. The history‑making back‑to‑back‑to‑back promotions. It’s soaked in history. Wrexham AFC is the third oldest professional club in the world, with their ground, STōK Cae Ras (STōK Racecourse), being the oldest international football stadium still in use. I have loved it so much that I even bought the season pass so I could listen live to every match. I cheer, shout, despair, and celebrate. I am a football fan.

That sentence still surprises me.

I grew up in a house where sport was everything. My dad loved football. Every weekend the TV was locked to whatever match and game he wanted to watch. Often watching multiple. My brother loved it. I didn’t. I was the wrong son for that world. Football became a symbol of everything I wasn’t. It was loud, physical, aggressive, and competitive. It was everything my dad thought I should be. I wrote previously about the weight of being compared, the faces he wore, the man he became at the end, and a eulogy that held truth without rewriting anything. I accepted who he was, who I was, and that we would never have authentically met in the middle. We did manage to maintain a relationship after Mum died, enough to be by his side near the end. That meant a lot.

Maybe that is why this weekend feels layered. I am going to the town of the club I chose for myself. I am being the football fan my dad wanted me to be. I’m finally engaging in an area where we would have mutually met. Saturday is also a big day for Wrexham. The Championship is unpredictable. Results swing wildly. Tables shift in minutes. Wrexham are fighting for a play‑off place. Other teams are pushing against them. The day could be joy or heartbreak. I am trying to manage my expectations. At the start of the season I would have been happy ending mid-table. I didn't expect them to be here. I know how football works. I may have hated it growing up, but my dad at least made sure I understood it. Through him, I know that joy and disappointment is part of the experience. It is part of being a fan. I’m embracing it all.

We will arrive and settle into the hotel today. Tomorrow we will explore the town, walk past the stadium to feel the atmosphere, and I, with some of my gang, will visit the Turf and watch the match against Middlesbrough. I want to hear the noise, see the shirts, flags, players, and fans in the element I have watched from afar.

I have been thinking about my dad a lot while planning this weekend. I think about the things he loved, the things he missed since he passed away, the things we did when I was young, and the distance between us. I want my kids to remember trips like this as something warm, something they did with me, and remember that we built memories. Life isn’t easy. The kids carry their own baggage, just as I did with my dad. I don’t always get this parenting thing right. I hate that they have moments where things went wrong and I wasn’t the dad I should have been. I hope they can read this when they are older and appreciate a good and happy weekend away together.

It’s not all football and weddings. On Sunday we are going to Chester Zoo. It will be one of those days where we walk for hours, take photos, and enjoy the UK’s most popular conservation zoo that houses over 30,000 animals and more than 500 species. These are the family moments I miss from when the kids were little. Not the big events. The small ones. The zoo trips, visiting castles, and embracing culture. The feeling of being together without rushing. All before we head to the hotel where Hannah’s family are staying for Monday’s wedding.

This weekend is a wedding, a holiday, and a football match all rolled into one. It is a family of six in a car heading to Wales to build memories. It is a chance to rewrite my youth through my children now that I am the dad.

I am sure there will be plenty of photos that will lead me to write about this weekend and share it here. For now, I’m happy we're together and heading to Wrexham.