and she’d spend days cleaning out fowls and turning up maragams and sausages and the like. She did all that kind of thing. And she would have a vegetable garden like something you never saw before, and extra-special rhubarb and gooseberries and currants. This was the kind of work she did while my mother looked after the inside of the house.

The last time I saw her was about 1938 or ’39, and at that time she was reading the paper without glasses, her 98th or 99th year.

I believe that she could knit a sock beginning when she tied the first little knot to start the toe of the sock... , and she probably could go through the whole sock, right up to the top, without even putting her eyes on the knitting. Her hands just went, you see.

Reflection

I’ve been retired for a year and a half. I’m able to look back on my life with some satisfaction. I think of myself as an ordinary man with a very high regard for people. I’ve made the usual number of mistakes during my lifetime. I’m very proud of my heritage. I’m very proud of my family and those who married into my family. I feel sure that my beginnings in Flat River started me off on the right track. In fact, my philosophy of life today is based almost totally on the teachings of my parents.

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9O BELFAST PEOPLE