Mary Morgan (5 Jun 1924 - 4 May 2016)

MARY MORGAN – from Dundee

Mary always introduced herself as “Mary Morgan from Dundee”. She was proud of her birth place and never lost her accent.

She was the last surviving member of Janet & William Clark’s family of five. Her siblings were Edwin, Betty, Albert and Jack.

Her father was a baker in the Auld Dundee Pie Shop Mary always spoke fondly of him making the pies and bridies.
Mary had a tough time when she young – her mum died of a brain haemorrhage when Mary was only 10 years old and she had to leave school to help look after her dad, sister and 3 brothers.

She was engaged to Jack Kennedy on Christmas day in 1943 but sadly he was killed in action during the war the following April.
5 years later she married Bob – one of Jack’s friends – and their first house was just a couple of doors down from the family home in Parker Street Dundee. They had 2 children – Ann & Robert.

Money was tight but Mary was a very thrifty woman – always baking, making soup, knitting and darning the holes that mysteriously appeared in sock heels and the elbows of jumpers.
She was a remarkable woman who never seemed to sit down much and was always working in the house – washing, ironing, cooking and cleaning after a day at work. Bob supplied fruit and veg from the garden and eggs were plentiful from the hens kept at the allotment near the Law Hill.

School holidays were spent on Broughty Ferry beach – Mary would make up sandwiches and take the kids there by bus. As she was up early doing a cleaning job she would catch up on some sleep in a deck chair while the kids played in the sand – or so she thought! They were mostly out on wee boat trips.....unknown to her.

Mary worked in a number of places during her life but always talked fondly about her days at Scottish Gas. She always referred to it as “The “Gassie” and she was the “tea lady” there for a number of years. She worked there with her sister-in-law Vera and they were often heard bright & early (around 6am) singing and laughing all the way to work. She always exchanged cards at Christmas time with some of her Gas Board friends. One of her colleagues in the Gas Board wrote a poem about Mary many years ago – something often recited on visits by Ann. It’s very poignant as until latterly Mary always remembered the last line and it gave her great pleasure to say this.

At 70 years young Mary had her first flight – in a helicopter on a very windy day! The following year she was off to Canada and America in a real plane to see her niece and nephew.

However - Grantown on Spey and Nethybridge were Mary and Bob’s favourite holiday places. They would often go there spring and autumn and Bob would take his double burner stove to rustle up a meal by the roadside.

Bob had heart problems and passed away before reaching his retirement and when Mary retired a few years later she couldn’t settle and decided to move to Edinburgh.

Mary moved to Porthaven House when her Alzheimer’s meant she now needed 24 hour care.
Shortly after this move Ann saw a leaflet for “Caring Memories Books” and thought this would be a great thing to do with mum. It was one of the first to be published and things escalated from there when Chris Wilkins the director of Caring Memories heard about the joy this book brought to Mary. It was a new project and she agreed to help promote this to fellow sufferers. Film crews were in and out of the care home – Mary was on the BBC news and in the newspapers – an overnight celebrity. Making this book has left the family with some wonderful memories – including a short film of Mary reading her book to Ann in her bedroom at the care home.

Singing also played a huge part in Mary’s life – she constantly surprised her family knowing the words to so many songs. Music brought great joy to her in the latter stages of her illness – she could sing along with the best of them!

Mary moved to Marionville Court Care Home in November last year and in the short time she stayed there everyone took a shine to her – probably due to her infectious laugh and cute wee smile.