Spiritual leader, snooker enthusiast, greengrocer: Mohammed Shafiq, ran FreshSave in Didsbury for more than 23 years. He passed away last month and has been remembered by his communities across the world and today, by his family.
Mohammed was a familiar face throughout Didsbury, where he worked, and Bolton where he lived, and was known for his joy, wisdom, and the free, fresh fruit in his shop. The announcement of his death caused an outpouring of heartfelt responses, with more than 600 likes and 167 comments across two obituary posts on the Facebook page Didsbury M20 and letters, cards and drawings sent to the shop.
Mohammed moved to Bolton from Pakistan aged six with his mother, who worked in the cotton mills. He took a job collecting from the markets when he was 14 and would work before school to help his mother. In January of this year he was diagnosed with cancer.
Read more: Lost Manchester theatre and cinema where families spent 'many happy hours' for over 60 years
The Manchester Evening News sat down with Mohammed’s wife, Mrs. Shafiq, and two of his sons, Omar, 31, and Hammaad Shafiq, 23, to talk about his life. The family are no strangers to the media, with Hammaad and Mohammed being featured in the Guardian last year and Mohammed featuring in, not only an episode of Rip Off Britain, but the title sequence as well.
Mrs. Shafiq explained: ‘He’s always been in the limelight, he’s in the intro of Rip Off Britain.
“He was on, talking about products, when they have sell by dates, and how there’s no such thing as you can tell when something has gone wrong and you don’t need to eat it. Things go to waste because of the sell-by date.
“He says, you can tell when something’s wrong, you can taste it, you can smell it. No need to just throw things away, waste things. He’d say, there’s people starving in the other worlds and we would never throw good things away in the bins.
“He had a basket in his shop and he just reduced them to 50p or just take it without any money, or just gave it to people. If you can’t afford it, you can have it.
“It’s like a little gift, a gesture. People in Didsbury village, and even when we had a shop in Radcliffe, people used to love to come in and talk to him all of the time. He was a wonderful person, very happy to have people all of the time, listen to their problems, try to console them.”
Hammaad, who worked with his dad at FreshSave added: “He actually used to shout at us as well, you know when he was training me at the shop. If I didn’t have something by the counter to give to people for free, like a little orange or something, he used to have a go at me.
“He said, this is how we do our business, we give something for free. So anytime he served a customer he’d give them a little tangerine or something.”
FreshSave wasn’t Mohammed’s only profession, as he was also a spiritual healer and worked from home, talking to people all over the world from his armchair.
Omar explained: “My dad was a spiritual healer, even in his last days, even when he was on oxygen, he was still coming in this room, sitting in that chair there and talking to people all over the world. People who have depression, anxiety, things like that.
“He’d talk to them and try and help them, give them a better insight on life. He’d spend a lot of time with them and give them the time and support and try and make them feel better.
“He went to America, Canada, the Middle East, went to parts of Africa, Pakistan, all over doing this kind of work where he was spreading the word of peace.”
On the lighter side of life, Mohammed was a devoted snooker fan and player, and in 2006, even beat Jimmy ‘The Whirlwind’ White at Bolton Snooker Hall.
Omar said: “He was a massive snooker enthusiast, he beat Jimmy White. He lost by one ball to Dennis Taylor.
“With Dennis Taylor, I don’t know what the story was, but with Jimmy White, his friend won the ticket to play Jimmy White. He backed out and said ‘I can’t play him’, he gave it to my dad, his good friend, and said ‘you play him’, and then my dad played him and beat him.”
Hammaad added: “He used to have a lot of trophies and he played a lot in snooker in his younger years. He played in tournaments and he won loads.
“Even with cancer, he’d play snooker, even with oxygen, he’d strap his oxygen on his back like a superhero.”
As a young man, Mohammed was a big fan of Elvis, and got nick-named as such. He was recognisable in three-piece suits and quaffed hair, and for some time, in Elvis apparel sewed by his mum.
Omar explained: “He was an Elvis impersonator, some people who knew him from back in the day, still refer to him as Elvis. He never performed, he had a really good voice, he knew a lot of the Elvis songs and he could sing them really well.”
Hammaad said: “It was something he kind of did, just around his friends, he never took it to that level when he was on the stage. Then he went from that into the way he lived the rest of his life, wearing a turban.”
Following Mohammed’s sister’s death in a car accident in 1995, he travelled to Mecca with his mother as part of hajj. Following his pilgrimage, Mrs. Shafiq explained that he came home changed and was the first man in Bolton to wear a turban.
She said: “I said to him, you take your mum, I’ll look after the business and the kids. It’s only four weeks. He came back as a changed man.
“He was completely different, he was so much into praying, and he said he found peace when he went there.
“From the three piece suit he used to wear all of the time, he started wearing Islamic clothing, the Islamic head turban and everything.
“He was the first man who started wearing the head turban in Bolton.”
Mohammed took over FreshSave after his consignment at Quick Save ended. He was training to become a driving instructor, but was asked to look after the shop for a friend while he travelled to Pakistan.
When he returned, he sold the store to Mohammed, knowing it was in the best hands.
Omar said: “My dad was a celebrity in Didsbury, even all those years ago. We still do, but in them days, we had every single line of what you could think of, they used to call the shop Alladdin’s Cave.
“He’d give everybody time. Even the local shoplifters, he’d have a cup of tea with them.
“He’d give everybody time. He was the rock of Didsbury.
“The short time my dad was on this planet, he touched everyone’s hearts.”
Hammaad said: “His crowning achievement, in my personal opinion, in hindsight, was the impact he’d had on so many people’s lives. Like how he was able to have such an impact on so many people’s lives. People who he’d only met once or twice, maybe only had a conversation or two and even they would remember him from that.”
Mrs Shafiq added: “He was happy, he was happy with his trade. He had so much to say to people, so full of wisdom. I said, you might bore people!
“He was my best friend. We could talk to each other about anything in the world.”
Mohammed Shafiq was born on January 27 1962 and died on August 9 2022, he was 60 years old.
Read next:
-
Brilliant photos capture Salford Quays' dramatic transformation from Manchester Docks to MediaCity
- Fascinating photos show how Manchester's streets have changed since the Queen's reign began in 1952
- Relive your Manchester school days with these iconic playground games we loved
- Unearthed photos of lost Manchester baths where generations learnt to swim
- Brilliant photos of King Charles III visiting Coronation Street set while he was Prince of Wales
