Walk around the ‘Rattlies’
Sunday brought reprieve from work
As least for those that could
A walk round the Spout Road
Past the White House
And Crumley’s farm
Then back to Roseann’s for a
Tea of boiled eggs
In wee duck eggcups saved from
The children‘s Easters past
It brought my mother Madge
From Ballindrait
To visit Fran’s mother’s
Home in Fountain Park
Four years we lived there in harmony
I bless her memory every day
Without fear of contradiction I
State Roseanne Hill lived her faith
Born 1904 her father, Michael, died when she was six
She never complained of her lot in life
But sitting around the fire at night
She’d gaze into the flames
And recall the courage of her mother Mary, Donegal reared
Who knitted and sewed to earn the price of a loaf
Always afraid the Man from the Welfare
Would rap the door
Find crumbs of small treats bought
From Teague Boyle’s wee shop in Townsend Street
Cut off her meagre National Assistance
Prevailed on many a time to wash the dead
She did so willingly for neighbour and friends
Each day of her life for years and years
Roseann cared for those she loved most dear
Francie, Noreen and Gerald
Her sister’s children and their children too
When the need arose
She cherished her hard won three bedrooms home.
She had to be a patient in St Columba’s, Infirmary
Before she was granted it in ‘57
When the rent man called he questioned her
Why she dared to leave a condemned house
At a rent of £2.6 for Fountain Park
At a much higher rate
Like her mother before her
Roseann had great respect for her dead
She’d get up from her chair
By the hotpress door
Pull a scarf on her greying hair
Stride down to Strabane Cemetery
To visit the grave
Her mother bought for her sister in ‘26
The cherished receipt brown with age
Stated “One pound paid for a grave by Mrs Hill
Sitting near the crumbling headstone
Roseann recalled the lives of the names
Carved into the stone
Her sister May fell off a bike and died when sill a child
Her mother’s death in ‘36
And the names hereafter – of
Newborn babies – nieces and nephews
God had called home.
She firmly believed by example we lead
Roseann would be happy to see today
Her extended family two generations on
Carrying on that tradition of old
On this her 50th Anniversary I say, rest well Roseann
God’s light shine on you and your
Family living and dead
Gemma Hill 2021
Gemma Hill Writeyou Writeme 