Ann Downey RIP Sept 2017

Anne Downey RIP © Tony Fallon.

Memories are the ties that bind
The emigrant to the home she left behind
You came from a village quiet and remote

Where cars were as scarce as a ten pound note

A bicycle was the only logical way to get around

And a new one might cost twenty five pound

Borrowing bicycles often caused a bit of a strain

If you got a flat you didn’t fix or broke the chain

You remember the sunshine and not the rain
You remember the first time you saw a train
You talk very fondly of the old school 
Where you were beaten with a wooden rule
The church where you heard scary sermons
About the devil or invading Germans

To nearest church on Sunday was a long commute

You’d better not get stains on your Sunday suit

You remember your first communion frock

Or the first time you were taken to Holy Knock

Then you left Leitrim, Ireland for the USA

You said three months was the longest you’d stay

But soon the money came and you got nice clothes

Some high heel shoes and some seamless hose

Less and less you’d think of all the muck and mire

Cutting and saving turf to get a decent fire

Or carrying buckets of water down the boreen

Doing the work of a man when you were only fourteen
You only remember the lark in the sky in the bog
You remember the first rabbit caught by the dog
All the excitement of hearing a cuckoo
The smell from the kitchen of Irish stew
That’s not the only odor stuck in your head
I bet you still remember the fresh baked bread
So much smoke in the kitchen you’d need a fan
When the bacon started burning on the pan
Later your mother would say it’s time to say a prayer
And you’d fall asleep with your head on the chair
You often remembered the ones for whom you pined
The family and friends and neighbors that you left behind 

But those who stayed at home had memories too

And often they prayed for and thought lovingly of you

They’d bring into conversations your New York Address
And they bragged to the neighbors about your success

They’d love if you were home and you were sorely missed

But the dollars and the clothes packages helped them exist

We all have to leave this earth as part of God’s plan

Tomorrow it could be you or me today it is Anne

But dying didn’t bother her she wasn’t a bit scared

She went to meet her maker very well prepared

East Durham’s Festivals will miss her blarney and her smile

They’ll miss her too in Florida far from the Emerald Isle.

In Leitrim too the skies will cry in memory of Anne

And we should all be so lucky to have her healthy lifespan