At 4.00 a.m. this morning Mary passed away in her sleep in Saint Elizabeth's Nursing Home in Athboy ,where she had been resident for some time and where she had received the best of attention during her stay. She was of advanced age and was predeceased by her husband Tommo in 2010 and her daughter Kathleen Clarke in 2007 ,both to the plague of cancer and both events to my certain knowledge broke her heart twice. over .
She was the eldest of ten siblings from Mayo and a nurse by profession and a good one at that .Her maiden name and married name were as one.
A woman of fastidious grooming she was an exemplary wife and mother to Kathleen and her surviving children Anne Sloan,London,Helena Corrigan,Trim,Mairead Donoghue,ditto,and son Terry Lambay ,who is married to my daughter Jacinta and a loving and caring grandmother to all of her grandchildren .
When she was well she was full of fun and in her younger days worked as hard as any woman ever did to rear her family and help out on the farm,often double jobbing by nursing elderly and sick patients while simultaneously seeing to her other duties.
No matter how hard she worked she was fastidious about her grooming and always looked her best.
When Fashion Shows were run as fund raisers not only did she help organize them but was a willing and competent model and clothes horse.
She was a strict Mass goer and a Minister of the Eucharist in Kilbride for many years.
She was good company and a great conversationalist and a quick thinker.If risen she could cut you to the quick and was well able to stand up for herself.
She lived on her own for a few years after Tommo's death and was extremely well minded as long as she could cope and indeed much longer by her loving and caring children and their families.
During this period in her life her residence was viciously violated and desecrated by a vile criminal or criminals and this caused her great upset as it did all belonged to her and even though I am no blood relation I share in this revulsion.
When in full health Mary was well able to stand up for herself and it is a mark of the esteem in which she was held by her children that she was visited multiple times daily by her children when Nursing Home care was unavoidable.
Terry was an exemplary son in this regard as were all her surviving daughters.
She will Be waked at her residence in Lambay from 3.00 to 8.00 p.m next Monday and will be arriving to Kilbride Church next Tuesday 13th December for the Funeral Mass at 11.00 a.m after which she will be buried in the adjoining Cemetery.
Ar Dheis De go raibh a hANAM dILIS.
ON A PERSONAL NOTE I KNEW HER FAIRLY WELL.SHE WAS A RARE ONE.
P.S.She was a stunnung corpse.Her daughters have obviously inherited her grooming genes and she had a well attended and respectful funeral and wake.
As she was being lowered into her grave I swear I heard the chug chug of the Baidin Ban........the ship in which she and Tommo met all those years ago and also I heard a celesttial groan from Tommo bemoaning the end of his Heavenly holiday AS Mary's soul rose to Heaven to assist Kathleen in putting manners on him for eternity.
Sure they wouldn' have it any other way.
Slan go foill.
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