Gloria Condon (1 Nov 1934 - 26 Nov 2017)

Love you granny xxxxxx

love and miss you so so much xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

miss you so so much life will never be the same again xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For anyone who doesn’t know me I’m Maria, Gloria’s niece. Auntie Gloria was a wonderful lady, dearly loved by her four children, 11 grandchildren, and 17 great grand children.

She was born on 1st November 1934 in Templetuoey, a small town in Tipperary Ireland. She was the youngest of three children, and enjoyed a wonderful childhood growing up in the grounds of the Long orchard country estate where her father Patrick and mother Bridget worked. She’d spend many a happy day running around the estate with her sister Nina and brother John.

When she was 16 she met the love of her life and future husband Dick. Shortly after marrying they moved to England and settled in Beeston. As well as bringing up four children, Gloria worked for several years on the twilight shift at Boots. She clearly liked working for big retailers at she also spent several years working in the staff canteen at Sainsbury’s before retiring.

Although Gloria and Dick created a wonderful life for themselves in Beeston, Gloria had to deal with great hardship when she lost Dick at such a young age, and later her beloved daughter Marguerite, and more recently her brother John and sister Nina. But Gloria was made of strong stuff and had an even stronger faith which helped keep her going, and a wonderful group of friends at the church to support her. She also took great comfort from knowing that she had such a big family around to support her, and loved having them all round for family get togethers, and she particularly loved seeing her grand children and great grand children. These get togethers will be greatly missed by us all.

In 1988 Gloria travelled to Australia to visit her son Ricky who’s family emigrated 1981, it was a journey Gloria & Dick had planned but sadly Gloria had to make the trip by herself. While there the name Mornington became very symbolic as Gloria told the story that not long after Gloria & Dick met an Australian stud farm purchased a race horse that Dick was working with as a strapper & wanted them to travel to Australia with the horse, which they obviously declined the offer. And yet a generation later one part of the Condon family emigrated & are living on the Mornington peninsula near the town of Mornington, which is the same place where the stud farm that purchased the all those years earlier is situated. Gloria cherished her time there & in 1993 at the age of 59 she again visited Australian.

In later years she became less mobile but also remained fiercely independent, and forced herself to go out most days. She loved nothing more than to wonder along Beeston high road chatting to people she knew, and treating herself to a coffee in Birds café. Her sons tried to talk her into having a stair lift, but typically, Gloria was having none of that as she didn’t believe she need one, and not to mention that she feared it might break down and she’d be stranded half way up the stairs.

We, the family, all have great memories of Gloria, and far to many to mention all of them. But the ones that stand out, and best represent the person she was are: These are just a few personal things that the grandkids wanted to include.

Natalie’s memory was always staying on a Saturday night I loved it and we used to go to to church and then I would have hot Weetabix. and I loved going every Sunday for dinner and a Monday Tuesday and Wednesday Granny’s dinners were the best. She was like a mum to me and I would call her everyday sometimes twice. Still in shock she’s not here.

Lucy’s Memory is
For Grannys 80th Dan and I took granny for an afternoon tea at Morley Hayes which she absolutely loved Spending time with granny was like spending time with a friend and could talk to her about anything and I always left the house feeling happy more positive with a full tummy!!

Laura’s Memory
We used to play aeroplane on granny’s bed and how she was always dramatic over serious situations And loved her Chicken Fajitas

Joanne’s memory
I used to always go to granny’s for tea every Wednesday no matter how old I was, and when I carried my dinner into the living room I dropped it on the floor and she made me eat it so I didn’t waste it.
So as you can see its all about food and being together. granny was very funny but not intentionally.
What an amazing lady she was xxx

Nicola’s memory
When I was 4 and we moved to Oz I had to leave my brand new gigantic polar bear teddy behind at Granny’s house. I specifically told Granny to leave him on the bed facing the door in the front room so he would see me when I got home. Five years later in the mid 80’s when I visited Granny he was on the bed facing the door, I visited granny again in the early 90's & early 2000 & sure enough he was on the bed facing the door. Just a month ago when I visited my Granny with my own daughter, my polar bear was on the bed facing the door waiting for me. I could always rely on Granny, she was the greatest. This is just one example of the hundreds that show just how brilliant she was and why we all loved her so much.

love you granny God bless xxxx