Sir Billy Connolly has robustly declared he is "not dead or broken" as he joyfully embraces his retirement days in the sunny climes of the US. The beloved Scottish comedian, affectionately known as The Big Yin, expressed gratitude for reaching 81 years old, considering his whirlwind life journey, and now finds solace in his hobbies of sketching and angling near his Florida Keys residence. In his latest literary offering, The Accidental Artist, Connolly muses on his good fortune to be alive after a tumultuous upbringing, battles with alcohol, and a perilous stint as a welder.
Despite grappling with Parkinson's disease, he maintains a positive outlook, suggesting that his shipyard work could have exposed him to even graver dangers. Connolly reveals in his memoir: "I got diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and prostate cancer the same week. I got treated for the cancer and now I seem to be OK.
The Parkinson's just rumbles along, doing its thing. It bothered me for a while but when I think about it I suppose I'm lucky I didn't get something worse because I was a welder." He recounts the ignorance of the era regarding occupational hazards: "The diseases they talk about now due to welding weren't known about when I was in the shipyards.
They didn't know about the hazards of asbestos. And men were always dying in accidents too. I was in an accident myself.
I fell off the ship into the Clyde, dropped 40 feet into three feet of water and broke my ankle", reports the Mirror . Reflecting.
