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Irish Chaplaincy Blog: Mamie Williamson RIP

  • Eddie Gilmore

Mamie with Paul Raymond

Mamie with Paul Raymond

In his funeral tribute to Mamie Williamson, Paul Raymond the Irish Chaplaincy Seniors manager mentioned the time that she had been expecting a visit from an Irish bishop only to find a GAA legend on her doorstep.

Alan Brogan, three-time All-Ireland winner with Dublin had been spending a day in London visiting some of those older Irish supported by the Seniors Project. He was accompanied by Harry Casey who works closely with the Irish Episcopal Conference, which may explain how Mamie got the notion that a bishop was flying over to see her.

She seemed to get more and more disappointed as each of her guests came in and turned out not to be a bishop! As I trooped in last, after Alan, Harry, Paul and Joe, she asked almost in desperation, "Are you the bishop?"

I have fond memories of that visit, during which we sat outside drinking tea and eating sandwiches in the little garden which had been lovingly transformed by Joe at weekends. I have fond memories too of Mamie's final comment to us as we took our leave: "Make sure they send a bishop next time!" Mamie's dream was to come true in 2019 when, thanks again to help from the Seniors Project, she went on the Westminster Diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes, a long-held wish. There is a photo of her outside the basilica in Lourdes, and smiling broadly, with Vincent Nichols, Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster.

Mamie had been due to go to Lourdes again in July 2022 and had been telling me excitedly about that when I went to see her in June. She also invited me to her ninety-first birthday party which was at the beginning of July. I wasn't able to go due to being away, but I'd enjoyed been at her ninetieth the previous year, which was a joyful gathering in her flat of people from the Irish Chaplaincy, her local parish in Archway and a couple of people from her day centre. Mamie entertained me with many stories on my final visit to her, including one she'd told in 2019 when being interviewed for an RTE Nationwide programme about the Irish Chaplaincy. A few months before Nicholas died he said to her in the middle of the night, "I love you." "Well, I know you do," she replied, "and I love you too but will you go back to sleep because you're keeping me awake!"

Mamie was born in Limerick in 1931, with her family moving to Dublin when she was a young girl. She married Nicholas in 1966 and they travelled over to London on their wedding night to begin their new life there. Paul recalled in his tribute how his first meeting with Mamie was in 2009 a few days after he'd joined the Senior's Project, which had supported Mamie since it's inception in 2005. There was a tea dance at the London Irish Centre and he told how Mamie had danced with him and had also sung to him When Irish eyes are smiling. It was following the death of Nicholas in 2010 that Mamie had been supported particularly closely by Paul and the team. She was given assistance in arranging the funeral; the visits to her were increased; and she was helped to link back into the community. She became much more settled again and began to attend a day centre four days a week. But she said she got a bit lonely at the weekends and so she still had a regular Chaplaincy visitor. Mamie said at one point, "I would have gone downhill without the Chaplaincy. Now I'm enjoying life again and getting out."

The Seniors Project also arranged each year for Mamie to travel to Ireland to visit her sisters, both then in their 90s; with somebody accompanying her to the airport and ensuring she had the help she needed when travelling. Mamie was able to go on such a trip a few months before one of her sisters passed away, and she was so pleased to have seen her before she died.

In 2020 and in response to the increased isolation that people were facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic Mamie was one of the first to be presented with a pre-programmed Tablet as part of our 'Keeping Connected' campaign. She said straight away that she would now be able to speak to her sister in Dublin on her 100th birthday which was to be in September 2021. Mamie was true to her word and we were all incredibly moved to see a photo of Sr Joseph seeing Mamie on the screen.

Sr Noreen wrote, "Sr Joseph's niece and the four Good Shepherd Sisters who celebrated her 100th birthday with her yesterday all agreed that the highlight for Sr Joseph was the video call which you facilitated with her only living sibling Mamie Williamson. Sr Joseph (Rita to her family) became more animated when she saw Mamie and though she did not speak it was evident that she was touched." Mamie also enjoyed using the Tablet to watch Mass from St Gabriel's, her local parish church, and sometimes as well Masses in Ireland. She even, at the age of eighty-nine, joined Facebook!

Mamie had asked that we arrange her funeral when she died and to be buried in London with her Nicholas. One of Mamie's nieces had told us, "It is so lovely she is supported by the Chaplaincy. You are her family over there. Thank you so much." Two of her nieces, Eithne and Audrey were there at St Gabriel's for the funeral, having flown over from Dublin with their husbands Gerry and Leo. They said once again how grateful they were for the love and support that Mamie had received from the Irish Chaplaincy over the years, and in particular for the help with the multiple medical appointments that had been necessary in her final months.

Mamie was loved indeed and she will be missed by all who knew her. May she rest in peace with her beloved Nicholas.

Mamie Williamson 1931 - 2022

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