Constants

I was doing my quarterly pull out of recipes and interesting articles from my pile of magazines when I came across last Wednesday. It was part of an interesting promotion for Age UK in Marie Claire, It went on to say 'Most of us can thank someone form an older generation for their supportive role in our lives' and three successful women shared stories of how they were inspired, encouraged and coached by those that had trod the path of life before them.

Earlier this week my great aunt, or Aunty Bridie as she was known to us, my sister's children and my son passed away, she was days short of her 90th birthday and she was such an inspiration to me throughout my childhood, teens, twenties and beyond. We all have people in our lives that are bestowed 'job' titles by virtue of their relationship to you, parents and grandparents and so on. For some the greatest constants are not within these immediate circles but further afield. For me, she was one of the greatest constants in my life for a million and one reasons, she chose a career as a teacher, but she was more than that, she was one of lives great teachers.

She had a way of getting you on side without you realising, she always knew just how to say the right thing at precisely the right time and even when we were naughty she had us all right back on track with the least amount of fuss. I don?t recall her needing to get cross with us, I always remember she had the greatest of patience and would listen to us for hours on end as if we were the most fascinating people she ever heard.

Nothing we said was too silly, she always asked questions and asked our opinion on things and was a totally fascinating woman to listen too. I have come away with a deep understanding of how life was for my great aunt, her two sisters and three brothers as they grew in 1920's Ireland, the images are so vivid and clear I might as well have been there. She was an amazing storyteller and past on invaluable wisdom that will stands me good stead. I spent three years in Letterkenny at college, during that time I seemed to have the latest, greatest and biggest dilemma of my life every five minutes, and all I had to do was cross the road from college and she would sit and listen to me for hours on end. My socks would be well and truly pulled up and by the end of it all I was ready to go out and face the world again.

I am not in Letterkenny today to say my goodbyes to a very special woman. This was a big disappointment for me, but I knowing she would have given out to me for worrying about something I could do nothing about and that had kept me buoyed up.

Sadly a few short hours before her funeral I received a call from my sister to let me know my great uncle had just passed away too. He too was another great constant. Losing two great constants in one week is incredibly hard. It seems that an era has ended as the last of a generation has gone.

Thank you Aunty Bridie for the guidance, love and inspiration you provided through the years. May they both Rest in Peace