My aunt died in the early hours of Tuesday morning. When I say aunt, she was actually my mum's cousin. Her name was Joan or Joanie to her friends and family and she lived in Co Tipperary in Southern Ireland.
As a child, I spent all my summer holidays in Co Sligo with Joanies sister, (aunty Mary to me). Despite the fact that aunty mary had seven children of her own, she would acquire at least another half a dozen from her siblings and cousins who were situated throughout Ireland and Scotland. Having only a small cottage, bedtime involved lots of head to toe sleeping with an average of three to a bed. Aunty Mary had no heating and only one tap in the scullery (Kitchen) and so hot water had to be boiled in a massive pot on the range and then carried through to the sink. The same range was the permanent home to a massive pressure cooker full of potatoes, which would physically shake and hiss to the point where you thought it must surely explode. Nowadays Health and Safety would have a field day, but I thought it was all magical.
Having only one younger sister at home and being the eldest grandchild I was always very much in the spotlight, whereas in Ireland I had the freedom to disappear among all the other children and just enjoy myself. Those summers were the best thing about my childhood and when aunty Mary died a few years ago it was a terrible blow to me. At 72 I felt she was far too young, afterall I still had my nan (95 in June) and her younger sister (93) so this seemed to me like a life cut short. I still miss her very much, even to this day.
Joanie was a larger than life character who had five children of her own and who nursed a sick wheelchair bound husband until he died. Once he had gone, she picked herself up and got on with her life. She was a devil for a practical joke and was always up to mischief. Her last few months saw her confined to a hospice in Limerick about 100 miles round trip from her family and so she was brought home to die. A frail shadow of herself, she slipped away quietly with all her family around her. That was when the phonecall came.
Joanie is gone! She will be buried tomorrow and everything is in place. At a days notice I couldn't get there but did send flowers only to find that the funeral had been put back a day and if I'd known I might have made it there in time.
If you are looking down Joanie, I hope that you know how much that you'll be missed and that you are sharing some joke or story with Aunty Mary. I'll be thinking of you both and will light a candle at mass tomorrow.
Goodnight and God Bless
Jacqui x
9 comments:
Your Aunty-cousin sounds like a lovely character. Your childhood trips must have been a treat for you! Health and Safety would have lots to say about lots of things that really contributed to close family and magical childhoods.
Thanks for sharing that with us. Your family memories are lovely
On Friday at four - we will pull a few weeds for your lovely Aunt!
Yup, bet they're looking down and having a good natter about you! I'll pull some ground elder.....
jxxx
lovely post. I too have happy memories of relatives like this and they are wonderful. I sort of keep them filed in the back of my head and pull them out sometimes, like when I need to entertain the kids with tales about the olden days (ie Roman times, when I was a mere child myself). Thanks for sharing
Sorry about your auntie, we'll remember her when we do our weed pull. You have lovely family memories, your childhood holidays sound idyllic.
Hello Jacqui,
So sorry to hear about your Aunty Joan, good to know that you have all those lovely fond memories of her, and so too of Mary. When I lived in London, I had wonderful Irish neighbours who were born in Tipperary, I still miss them.
Camilla.x
Ahh, lovely happy ending to your blog, I am sorry to hear about your auntie,and sorry for you that you will miss the funeral.
You asked which island I live on, the Isle of Islay, where they make all of the whisky.
How sad but what lovely memories. It is funny how much fuss is made in today's society about bedrooms fro everyone and houses being too small yet people years ago not just managed but were happy in their small overcrowded cottaqes. Our first house a 2up 2 down was where my Nana and her 5 siblings were born and they were by no means poor. They had a shop and rented out other properties but there just wasn't this burning desire of materialism that we all suffer from today.
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