Known for their wit, humour and big hearts, Scouse grandparents are always on hand to offer the best advice and teach us the biggest life lessons. Every Friday, a group of senior citizens take part in Liverpool Football Club Foundation’s walking football and walking netball at Anfield Sports and Community Centre.

As well as encouraging members to keep physically active, the group helps to tackle social isolation. The ECHO sat down with some members of the group to get their words of wisdom and find what it means to them to be from Liverpool.

Scouse grandads Walking Football

Rob Rymill, 73, from West Derby

One of the group is Rob Rymill, 73, from West Derby, who has taken part in walking football at the club for the last six years.

A lifelong Evertonian, Rob said he joined the group to prevent himself from “stagnating” after retiring as a design engineer.

He told the ECHO: “I decided to give it a try because I retired around five or six years ago, and I thought I’d better do something here because I’m just stagnating. I wasn’t walking football when I first came though, I was running, kicking, heading, tackling, and sliding.”

Before retiring, Rob said he had always played football and that the group had helped him start “living his fantasies again.”

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He said: “I played football from when I was a kid, through school and youth clubs to pub teams. I probably stopped playing when my children were young because I had to devote more time to them but then these sort of things came around again and you restart living your life and your fantasies again, playing football with your mates again. It’s amazing.”

Now a dad of two and grandad of four, Rob added: “I’m very proud of the city. I love everything about it. When people come up to you and ask you for directions you don’t just say, ‘it’s up there on the left’, you have to take them. It’s just something within you.

“Being from Liverpool you can’t stop showing off about it. When I’m taking someone to a place I’m saying, ‘You see that building there? It’s 270 years old’, and ‘You know we’ve got Grade II listed buildings all over the city’. I love being from here and being an ambassador for it.”

When asked what his best piece of advice for the younger generation would be, he said: “Just enjoy yourself, enjoy sport, because sport brings people together. You need a crowd of people with you, whether it’s a mixed sport, a golf or something like that just to get out. Just get out in the fresh air and get out of your bedroom and don’t touch drugs.”

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Gerard DeMarco, 68, from West Derby

Gerard DeMarco, 68, from West Derby, also started playing walking football around six years ago. He is a dad of three and grandad to five.

He said: “Our group is great. The camaraderie, the people, we all look after each other. If anyone’s got any problems, we talk to each other, and we go out and socialise. The people are fantastic, and at this age, a lot of people just seem to stay in the house, but we come out and have a good laugh and a chat. It’s great….

CONTINUE READING at source: https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/asked-scouse-grandads-words-wisdom-33380037