On Saturday November 4th 2006, Granny would have been 100. Sadly, she passed away in 2004 and never got a telegram from the Queen. As a life long royalist she would have loved that. Granny was one of ten children and herself had ten children, thirty four grandchildren and quite a few great grandchildren. She endured many hardships throughout her long life. She was marginalised by her family when she became a Catholic, she lost a son, Billy, during the Clydebank bombing. She gave birth that night to another boy, Tom who was born deaf. Her husband, Wullie was seriously injured from the blast and rendered blind. Tragically, Tom was killed in a scooter accident as a young man.
Shortly afterwards one of her granddaughters, Andrea died in infancy. Her eldest son, Peter died in 2002 as the result of an accident some twelve years before which had left him paralysed from the neck down. On the face of it, this sounds like a tale of woe. Jean Hastie was, however, one of the most cheerful people you could hope to meet. She had a great repertoire of one liners, an infectious laugh that often left her and others with tears of laughter running down her cheeks, and a wonderful sense of mischief. I enjoyed her piano playing and singing, the fact that she retained her love for the royal family and support for Glasgow Rangers F.C. despite, or possibly because, she was surrounded by Celtic supporting republicans.
I'm not sure of the best way to honour her special day, perhaps I could break the habit of a lifetime and support Glasgow Rangers this weekend (they're not playing on Saturday though and in any event they're playing so badly at the moment) , she wasn't a drinker so that rules that one out, and she wasn't one for solemn commemorations. Maybe the best way is to try and remember just how lucky I was to know and love this special woman.
In the pictures above, Granny can be seen as a schoolgirl in 1912 and shortly before she was married in 1931.
4 comments:
That's lovely
Thank you and welcome - I feel honoured to have such an esteemed blogger visit me. My day is made.
Mon the Gers!
4-2!
I'm intrigued as to why she became a catholic. What a life. I'd have loved to have talked to her.
Best wishes,
Paul
[Got here via TMWL]
Hi and welcome, Paul!
It's just as well Celtic weren't playing against a decent team this afternoon that would have been more embarrassing still! I'm already dreading MUFC. The referee got both sending-offs wrong but that's one job I wouldn't touch with a barge pole.
I'm not sure exactly why she converted interestingly her mother-in-law was Presbyterian and remained so for all her life. She used to drop the children off at Mass when her husband was away at work but refused to set foot inside a Catholic chapel. I know that Granny took instruction from a nun when she was becoming a Catholic and took it very seriously - my Grandfather took it even more seriously and in the year his father would have been 100 attended 1000 Masses.
She was indeed great company one of my happiest memories was chatting to her all the way from Euston to Glasgow Central. The woman sitting opposite got off at Carlisle and said, 'Madam, I should just like to say how much I've enjoyed listening to you and your grandson talking to one another!'
Losing against Rangers didn't seem to matter so much when Granny was around but it's nice to think of her teasing Grandpa up in the celestial TV lounge.
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