by Peg Prendeville

There is a lovely new programme on West Limerick 102fm on Wednesday mornings at 11 am called  Creatively Speaking presented by Mary Lavery Carrig. It is a mixture of poetry and prose. I loved listening to Kay Liston from Athea who was the guest poet last week. She has such beautiful poems with a lovely speaking voice. Well done to Mary on presenting such an interesting and relaxing programme.

There is a lovely new cafe opened up in Foynes – Ebzery’s Boutique Cafe & Tearooms. It is a real quaint little place with the most friendly host and staff. It is worth visiting if passing. My sister Bridie Murphy and I had a really lovely morning there last week.

Sometimes I like to look back on past notes as it can be very interesting to compare the different times. That is how I came across the following piece about Peggie Enright whose 20th anniversary occurs at this time. It is worth repeating it in her honour.

“An air of sadness fills our local community on hearing of the sudden and unexpected death of our friend Peggie Enright (Egan) last night in Tullamore hospital. Peggie had spent a few days in Dublin with her daughter Rita and had moved on down to Tullamore to her son Jim where she took ill and had to be hospitalised. She suffered a heart attack and died last night at 9pm. Peggie was a lovely mother to her children and a faithful wife to Jimmy who passed away only 5 months ago making the burden on her family hard to bear. But as well as all that Peggie was a mother to us all and was everybody’s friend and confidant. She was so gentle and kind and always had a chocolate bar in the house for any child who called. Some people remember her as a companion at bingo, others as a walking companion before she was stricken with arthritis. My earliest memory of her is when I was going to school in Clounleharde and especially after Mom dying she would keep an eye on us and make sure we were ok. She often invited us to the house for our lunch and she was the first person I knew who made iced fairy cakes, which were such a luxury then! Once when my father got a weakness, while working on the road beside the house, she took him in and put him into a bed until a doctor arrived to look after him. She was an only child whose own mother died while she was quite young so she lived with her father and took care of him until he died. She and her cousin Kathleen (Dillane) Dunican grew up like sisters and maintained their close loving relationship to the end. Likewise her brother-in-law Liam was her close friend and will miss her terribly. Some would question what is the point of life at all, that Peggie deserved more years on this earth, more years of better health. We have no answers but I know for sure that the world is a better place for Peggie having been in it; she lit up life for lots of people, she showed what gentleness is, what caring is, what acceptance is. I am sure she was not perfect; I know she got wicked now and then from having so much pain but she did her best and was a model child of God in whom she had great faith. I am sure she is enjoying her well deserved eternal happiness now in the company of Jimmy and all those who have gone before her and whom she loved also.” (July 2005)