Janey Godley's heartbroken daughter said 'a million goodbyes' to mum before her death

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Janey Godley's heartbroken daughter said a “million goodbyes” to her beloved mum before her death.

In an exclusive interview with The Record during the comedian’s final hours, Ashley, 38, revealed: “I’m happy that she can go in peace knowing that I’m fine and that I’m going to be OK.

“That was important to her. She wanted to leave us in good shape, but I think she wanted to leave her spirit in good shape as well.”

The stand-up comedian died at Glasgow’s Prince and Princess of Wales hospice at the weekend.

She continued to work until recently, performing in towns and cities across the country.

Ashley said: “That last couple of years doing tours and leaving it all on the table was about her saying goodbye to the people who supported her.”

Ashley, who has been nominated at this year’s BAFTA Scotland awards including the Favourite Scot category for her own comedy series, Dinosaur, said: “My mum lived as if she was running out of time even before she knew she was running out of time.

“People identify with her. The world will be a little quieter because she lived so loudly.

“One big takeaway I’ve had through the grieving process of her passing away and her coming to the end of her life was that a lot of people told me to ask her all the questions I needed to ask her and tell her all the things you need to say.

“I was by her bed and we were just looking at each other and I ended up talking about the dog’s back teeth being cracked for 20 minutes. I was like, ‘We’ve said everything that could ever possibly be said’.

“There’s no secrets. There’s nothing that went unsaid. We spent our whole lives together. Every tour I was there, every show she did, I was taking notes and everything she’s ever done I was on the sidelines.

“We said a million goodbye conversations.”

Tributes flooded in from across the UK for the much-loved but often controversial comedian after she passed away surrounded by family.

Janey, from Glasgow, had shot to fame doing cheeky voiceovers of then FM Nicola Sturgeon’s Covid briefings. She also made inter-national headlines in 2016 as she brandished a sign saying “Trump is a c***” when he arrived in Scotland.

Along with her daughter, Janey is survived by husband Sean Storrie whom she described as “ her rock and support system”.

Janey told her fans she had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in November 2021. In September, she was forced to cancel her autumn Why Is She Still Here? tour after contracting sepsis.

A week later she was moved to a hospice for palliative care after her cancer spread. But Ashley says her mum didn’t feel it necessary that she be at her bedside at the end.

She said: “I went to see her and the first thing she said when I walked in was, ‘why are you not at work?’”

Ashley admits attending the BAFTA Scotland ceremony on November 17 will now be a bittersweet experience, having first attended the awards with her mum over two decades ago.

She said: “The first time, when I was 15, me and mum blagged our way into the afterparty and we saw all the High Road actors we knew off the telly and we were going, ‘Oh my goodness, there’s Kaye Adams’.

“Something we’ve always done together is go to the Scottish BAFTAs and have a laugh. It would be a fun night out for us. But my mum won’t be there so I think that will be strange.”

Looking back on Janey’s career, Ashley said: “My mum always felt when she walked onstage that she was an over-friendly cleaner who’d wandered in for a bit of a chat. I think that was her vibe the whole time.

“She ran into everything with no panic or not a lot of forethought whereas I would mull things or sit on my heels for three years before I would make a decision.

“I think what I’ve learned is that Janey’s way was maybe the right way, that there’s no harm in moving a little bit faster, a little bit braver and being a little bit more impulsive. In the meantime, I’m coping because that’s what my mum wants me to do. The thing I can do for her is cope.

“I suffered with a lot of mental health issues and anxiety that turned out to be autism and mental illness runs in my family. A big part of her personality was, ‘I’ve been through this and that and I survived’ and I think a little nugget of my mum was frightened that I wouldn’t.

“I think showing her I’m coping and being able to cope has been as important to her as it is to me.”

As well as receiving plaudits for her TV show, which has four BAFTA Scotland nominations, Ashley is writing a crime drama with a major production company.

But far from being a product of nepotism, she says it was the other way around.

She said: “I started acting when I was four. I call her my Nepo-maw because when I was five, I was working with Ken Loach on adverts for Fairy Ultra. When mum was a barmaid I was doing short films so I always perceived that she came in behind me.

“She loved that I went to Cannes when she was shouting at punters in the pub. I got into comedy when I was 11. So again, when she was new to comedy.

“I did my first Edinburgh Fringe when I was 13 so we had always been not far behind each other. But I had school. I didn’t have the luxury of being able to pursue it as much because I had standard grades.”

Last week, her mum received an honorary degree from the University of Glasgow, during what Ashley described as the “final beats of her life”.

She said: “It will never feel as if she is far away.

“She is of the people and I always meet wee women that remind me of her when they ask inappropriate questions or talk about my hair. It reminds me of my ma.”

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