Annie

He sits by the bed and is surprised to see the old woman look at him with a clarity that defies the morphine pumped into her veins. Their eyes meet only for seconds before her eyes close again and she is gone. This is how my father's week began and how my grandmother's life ended.

Annie was my Grandmother, my Nanny. After my Papa, Jimmy, died in December Annie's mind became increasingly confused. I believe that she could simply not accept his passing so instead retreated her thoughts to earlier years and events imagined. Despite her confusion in the end Annie still knew her mind in as much as that she knew what she wanted, a strong will to compensate for her failing mind. Her wit never suffered much either, and if I think about her now I think about how she made me laugh.

Annie, like Jimmy, was one of life's great characters. Her generation has such a rich history due to circumstances of the era that in all likelihood characters such as herself will never be seen by this world again. Her mother died when she was fourteen making her tough before she should have been. When war broke out she worked in a munitions factory and drove a steam truck. I cannot imagine what her life must have been like in those years. It's hard to visualise my wee Nanny at the wheel of that big truck.

She once told me a story of walking home from her work with her friend one day when a man grabbed the two of them, flung them over a wall and lay on top of them. I was shocked; believing that she was telling me that his man was attacking her! "no," she said at the time "the planes were bombing us and he was protecting us from the rubble." An unimaginable time to be alive I think you will agree.

I'll finish off now with the short passage I wrote for Annie's order of service. Her passing is a sad occasion but I the end I think those that knew her knew that without Jimmy this world was too lonely a place for her to stay.

Together Again

nnie was a loving mother, grandmother and great grandmother, however, her greatest love was undeniably Jimmy. Some of the last words Annie spoke were to say that Jimmy was "keeping a place" for her and we know that she is now in that place, happy to be together again and for all time.

Annie Ambrose

1923—2008