I don't think I have posted this yet. There are now so many posts that I am beginning to forget. This is a pretty rare picture of Dad's parents I think. Notice the resemblance to his father Peadar. Peadar used to have a shoe repair business out of his home. He used to work in the living room in the corner. The smell of leather and the paraphenalia of leather was overpowering. He would hold the nails in his mouth while he hammered away and when a new nail was needed he would reach up to his mouth to get it. When he wasn't working on the shoes he would sit on the right hand side of the fireplace in a woolen cardigan and not say very much. He would laugh at every joke made and say hello to all the children who came by but he didn't talk. He didn't engage in conversation like Granda Waddell did. He was just there as an observer. I can still see him.
Granny Walsh did all the talking. She would come over to you and put her pink face up to yours with those glasses and she would pinch your cheek like a real granny. I stayed in her house very often while Mam was in hospital.
This photo is rare also in the fact that granny Walsh alway had a wrap around pinafore type of house coat thing that she wore. She was never seen without it. She was the only granny we knew really. I think I am the only one who remembers Mam's mother.
Granny Walsh was always cheerful and she had a vocabulary all to herself. She would call the children ' me aul harmonia ' I have never heard that anywhere else.
Taken in the backyard of their house on Kildare Road. Number 139. Paul was born in this house.
3 comments:
Well that was a story worth telling I must say...I didnt know any of that...never knew Grandas work!!!! I vaguely remember Granny Walsh...when we visited she would give us some coppers before we left!!! I remember Granda dying but dont remember any interaction.
that is the first time i've read this story Jim and i remember all of it so well now, you forgot to say that Molly (granny Walsh's Sister) always sat in the armchair behind the door, Granny Walsh would cut the heels of the bread and give us all some,she kept the butter on a saucer of water in the hall to keep it cool, we went to see them every Sunday morning
hail rain or snow and bring the Sunday newspapers to them, Dad worked in the Irish press and he would bring home the newspapers for Granny Walsh and Gran dad Waddell, and we (the kids) would deliver them and if we were lucky we got a penny each, i remember my Granny Barret, she was my great gran mother and lived on Kildare Road with my Granny until she died i would run to her and jump up on her lap and she'd kiss and cuddle me, yes i remember it well!!!
You know why it's the first time i read it JIm........because it's the first time you wrote it......I'm such a WALLY.
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