Childhood Connections Staying Current

August 17:   Eleanor, Siobhan and Martina came over for lunch and to spend the afternoon together.

We all went to St Mary's National School in Stranorlar from preschool through age 11-12 years.   There is a picture from the past that  I must dig it out and look at it again. We are all in it with our fresh eager little faces!  More mature now but still as lively as ever, always ready for adventures, we had good fun hanging out, chatting and reminiscing. Eleanor, Martina and I went to the Finn Colasite also. So we had more stories about the tender teen years and the boys and girls we knew!   My time at the Finn College was short lived when I was pulled out to follow my mothers footsteps and  be sent to a boarding school in Dublin, Loreto Abbey, Dalkey.  That was the end of "our together" le ceile  playful school years as we went separate ways.

It is a good thing to see the connectiveness and closure points of life's journey.  To celebrate how where we are at any time is rich with experiences that connect and bind us, past and present!   


The thought that has come to mind for me are the words from the Creation story in scripture ..."it was good".  It is a creative act to live a connected life. It is a good thing.

Unknown to us at the time, Martina attended the same teachers college in England as I did, only several years after me.  When I qualified, I headed for a year to the US, to Kansas. When she qualified,  she went on to teach in Strabane in County Tyrone during some of the very tough "troubles years" of the 1970's.  Later she received a Fulbright to teach for a year in Denver, Colorado.  Now in a phased retirement, she teaches part-time and lives outside Ballybofey with her partner Patrick who she met in Colorado.  Eleanor's husband, Declan,  is a retired Commandant from the Irish Army who served in overseas assignments and they spent several years in Brussels with the EU.  Declan is the current president of the Donegal Historical Society.  He is doing an amazingly organized job ...just the fresh blood they needed in the DHS.  Siobhan, the oldest member of the group, lives in Ballybofey.  She has been diagnosed with Parkensons.  Several years ago, when she retired as a hair stylist, she built a small one person beauty station in her brand new house so she could keep her favorite customers coming.  Siobhan is not unlike Fran, Jon's mother, in that she has such a keen interest in all things going on and staying young at heart.