What Unique Gifts Will Your Loved Ones Be Remembered For?
Today would have been my sister Anne’s birthday, but sadly she passed away earlier this year following a short hospital stay.
Remembering my sister Anne on her birthday with a few stories and photographs
Anne trained as a nurse but gave it up once she started her family to stay at home to bring up her boys. While she enjoyed being a stay-at-home mum, she also wanted to earn her own money. But anything she did needed to fit into the lifestyle she’d carved out for herself.
Anne had always knitted. She once told me when she was four or five, our mum first taught her, and she never stopped after that. Anyway, she came across a company that wanted people to knit Aran jumpers (a traditional Irish jumper) for export to America. Apparently, there was a large demand for this style of jumper — among Irish ex-pats, I guess. And this is what Anne took on and did for many years to come.
#FunFact1: Many years later, I asked Anne how much she was paid for each jumper. While she couldn’t remember exactly, she thought perhaps it was between IR£5 – IR£20 – depending on size. This was in the 1960s, when my sister Lily, who worked in our local post office, was earning IR£1 per week!
#FunFact2: The Aran jumper (Geansaí Árann) is a style of jumper that takes its name from the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. A traditional Aran Jumper is usually off-white (báinín) in colour. Originally the jumpers were knitted using unscoured wool that retained its natural oils (lanolin), which made the garments water-resistant and meant they remained wearable even when wet. The jumpers kept the workers of the land and the sea dry and warm against the raging weather of the Atlantic coast. (Source Wikipedia)
Anne knitted the red Aran jumper I’m wearing in the pic (she also knitted me a báinín jumper, but I can’t find a pic of that). Although on the east coast of Ireland, our weather was less harsh than on the west coast, my Aran jumper still served the purpose of keeping me warm in snowy weather.
I love that Anne’s unique gift as a knitter stitched her memory into the history of the Aran Jumper, which is quite fascinating in the history of Irish culture.
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Many years later, when Anne was in her 50s, she returned to work in a more formal environment, putting into practice the skills she’d gained in her nursing and worked with people with disabilities, supporting them to live independently in group houses in their community.
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On her retirement, Anne went back to her love of crafting and sold her wares to local craft shops and at local craft fairs. She was an extremely skilled craftsperson and won many awards for her creative collection of works. She also did quite well from a financial perspective. But probably more important to Anne was the network of friends she built through her craft and the social interaction that came from this.
Anne was a very sociable person and loved nothing better than catching up for a chat with people over a cuppa. It seems fitting that the tea cosy she made of Irish President Michael D. Higgins (In the pic) was her most popular item in shops and at fairs – it flew off the shelves/stalls of the places she supplied. I love to think of how many people are enjoying a cuppa and a chat in the company of Michael D. and my sister Anne.
#FunFact3 The glasses that accompanied Anne’s creation of Michael D. Tea Cosies were made by her husband, Brendan. Anne and Brendan met in 1961 when Anne was 16 and Brendan was 20. They married four years later and, on her death, had been together for 61 years. I used to laugh with Anne about the importance of the year 1961 because not only was that the year she met the love of her life, it was also the year I was born and the year she became my godmother. Anne was a wonderful godmother and sister, too, of course. I will always cherish that.
Happy Birthday, Anne xx
Epilogue
Words of Wisdom
I like to tell stories about my family. They make a great story to tell because they’re special to me. And also because they allow me to remember my loved ones through their unique gifts.
What Are Special Memories of Your Family That Make Great Stories to Tell?
What Unique Gifts Will Your Loved Ones Be Remembered For?
Founder of School of WorkLife, Carmel O’ Reilly is a learning practitioner and writer. She creates resources to help people self-direct their WorkLife learning. These include a Collection of Books which originated from her first book, Your WorkLife Your Way and a Learn Through Reading Series of Case Studies. which originated from her latest book WorkLife Book Club.
That’s the power of writing (and reading, which is an integral part of the craft for writers). It helps you find, develop and tell the right story at the right time in all WorkLife situations – in day-to-day communication: WorkLife and feedback conversations, presentations, talks, and negotiations, at interviews, and when socialising and networking in building and maintaining good relationships. The practice of writing helps you to tell the stories that express who you are in an interesting and engaging way