Mary (Betty) Waugh (6 Nov 1923 - 7 Jul 2016)

Betty died peacefully, in the presence of her family, at the Western General Hospital on 7th July 2016. The funeral service is to be held at Warriston Crematorium Lorimer Chapel on Monday 18th July at 3pm. All family and friends are welcome. There will be a collection for the charity Mercy Corps, a charity Betty donated generously to throughout her life.

Betty was born in Shettleston, Glasgow on November 6th, 1923 as the fifth child of seven to George and Mary Thomson. Her father was a warden in Barlinnie prison and Betty grew up in the prison warden's accommodation. Betty left school at fourteen to work in an office in Glasgow before joining the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force at the age of 18. During the war, Betty worked as an aeroplane plotter and had many an interesting tale to tell about her exploits during that time.

Betty married Bill Waugh in 1943 and they lived in a rundown cottage in Smithy Brae, Kirknewton for their early married life. Despite the difficult times post-war, Betty strived to make a happy home there, often devising very creative ways to do so with what little they had. After the birth of her two children Pat and Anne, the family moved to Currie where she has resided ever since.

Bill passed away in 1982 but Betty adapted well to a new chapter in her life, learning to enjoy her own company with the help of her trusty friend ‘the wireless’. She even went on to learn to swim after over fifty years of being terrified of water. Betty made and maintained many dear friendships through being an avid churchgoer and member of the Scottish Country Dancing community. She had a great deal of loyalty to her friends as well as her family. Betty loved her garden and spent a lot of time tending it as well as continuing to provide a welcoming home where visitors never left with an empty stomach or empty handed.

Betty’s house soon provided a second home for her grandchildren Jamie, Robert, Michael, John, Laura, Peter and Claire who have, over the years, affectionately known her as various aliases including Super Gran, Granny Betty Ballace, Granski and Henny. She was very protective and immensely proud of them as indeed she was of the rest of the family. Betty’s grandson Jamie has lived with her for the last eight years, providing invaluable care and helping her maintain her independence in the home she loved so much. In the last few years, regular visits from Robert, his wife Sian and son Conan brought Betty much joy, with Conan from the outset displaying the same tenacious attitude as his great granny.

As well as family and friends, music played an important part in Betty’s life. Favourites included the Gilbert and Sullivan operas and Johan Strauss. Despite dreaming of being a concert pianist as a child, Betty had to concede to her mother having a washing machine instead of a piano for the family home. Betty would no doubt have made an excellent pianist as she would accompany family sing-songs on her keyboard with much enthusiasm and amaze us all by being able to play any tune by ear after only a few minutes practice.

Betty was an intelligent and quick-witted woman with a great sense of humour. She enjoyed doing crosswords and her great determination was never more apparent than when she would sit for hours and even days puzzling over the answers. As her hearing deteriorated, doing crosswords with Betty often ended with raucous laughter from all as she often misheard the clues and provided her quirky solutions with comic effect. Betty was always able to find the humour in everything and could laugh at herself, even during difficult times and when in pain. She bore her ill-health with forbearance and fortitude, inspiring all those who met her.

Betty was fiercely independent and she maintained her independence as much as was humanly possible right until the end of her life. As she got older and less able she would still love to go out in the garden to help her daughter Anne and grandchildren Jamie and Laura as much as she could. There were a number of incidents involving wheelchairs rolling down the hill and a few close calls and acrobatic head stands when leaning out the wheelchair to reach a particularly pesky weed or to cut an unruly branch with the secateurs!

Betty was well known for thinking of others before herself. She was generous of spirit as well as with material possessions. She was grateful for what she had and knew the value of things. Betty’s inventive take on ‘make do and mend’ would put any modern environmental activist to shame! Despite recently being registered blind, she was still mending clothes right before she went into hospital.

Betty was an immensely special lady and will be greatly missed by us all.