She’s So Beautiful

She’s So Beautiful

By Paul McCann

Well if you would allow me a moment of your time , I’d like to introduce you to my Mammy , a lady of principle , a silent achiever and the most loyal person I’ve ever known . She was born the only child of Mary Clare and Richard Robinson ..

Before she was married my mammy lived with her mother and Father and she loved to dance . As a young girl Irish dancing was all she wanted to do , Her Father Richard was a musician and was always invited to parties and gatherings .
He tried to teach Mammy to play the push button accordion but it was such a heavy and cumbersome instrument to hold that her Father suspended it on a rope to a hook he had put in the ceiling to hold it . But the instrument just hung there most of the time because the only thing mammy was interested in was Irish dancing . Every chance she got she was away up to the local Hall to dance with the other girls.

She went to a school with 35 pupils in her class and the teacher would ask each child to bring in a lump of coal in the winter to keep the heating going in the school . As an only child mammy was very close to her parents .

She would visit the Poor Clare’s convent with her mother and they would bring little donations of food  . Back then the Poor Clares were an enclosed order and you never saw their faces .

Her Father died young and shortly after my mammy found her mother dead on the bathroom floor . Some of the local people were wanting to put mammy into an orphanage because they wanted the house , but mammy was wise to their plans and chased them out of the house with a poker in her hand . Mammy went to mass and said her prayers and  got a job at a young age in the local spinning mill .  

In those days a lot of the people were doing it hard as unemployment was high and most young men had nothing to do except for standing on the corners watching the girls go by . The lads were innocent but often mischievous playing tricks on people .

At 14 years of age Mammy was busy at work and at home making clothes for people by hand and knitting jumpers and cardigans that she sold .

Going to work in the winter with some of her chums was like walking the gauntlet at times because some of the  corner boys would be standing with big smiles on their faces and beside them a big pile of freshly made snowballs ready for firing and fire them they did . It was all just innocent fun and when you think of it , the  sight of young lads chasing wee girls with a snowball is comically quaint  . It was 1953 when my mammy married mt father Sammy McCann and they had five children . I was the only boy . We all grew up in a happy family home with friendly neighbours all around us .

Mammy was always there for me at all my school plays and concerts ..Her encouragement and support never left . My Mammy was beautiful and in her photos she could have been a film star . Growing up with Mammy was magic she made things like  toffee apples and the way she could coat that apple with candy was like an artist . I was a big toffee apple fan and watched her lovingly pour the melted candy over all the apples as they stood side by side like little soldiers lined up along the windowsill . Then when they were cool enough to eat we polished them off in seconds . Her specialty was baking apple cakes  , we would sit and watch her rolling the dough and cutting little leaves from the left-over dough and placing them on the top of the cakes . Now and then she would put in a 3D bit inside one of her apple cakes .  

I got a job delivering milk before school and was up out of bed early to start work, I always remember her in the parlour getting the fire started to warm the house up .and she always had my breakfast on the table waiting . There she would be squatting down by the fireplace , putting sticks over some scrunched up newspaper . and when it was piled up and ready to go she would strike a match which lit the paper and the smoke would rise up chimney . Within minutes there was a welcome warmth in the house for the whole family . Before I went out to start Mammy would ask me to bring in some coal from the back yard where it was minus below and snow covered the coal in the corner . As I returned with a bucket of coal, she would be standing at the stove stirring the porridge in the pot that was on the boil .
Off you go now son and do the milk run now   ”.
Mammy would say with a smile. 

Every Sunday and we were dressed immaculately and the seven of us all walked up to Holy Cross for 10 O’clock Mass  .I always remember walking home from Church after Midnight Mass  the strrets of Ardoyne were lit up like a fairyland with all the windows brightly with decorations and trees .

She made all of us clothes with her own hands and we were dressed like royalty .She cleaned out my ears and  put a fine comb through my hair .

Mammy was beautiful in every way , She never drank alcohol and kept the house like a castle . She worker hard all the days of her life in different jobs until daddy died at 57 years of age and then she left the work force ,

Her strength to carry on was amazing , The day she died I went to the morgue and just held a rose and stood with her in silence for about a half an hour .

I hope one day we will meet again

By Paul McCann

THE END