The brief notice of Maggie MacKinnon’s death suggests that she died at home. This is a tribute to the community.
I visited her less than three weeks ago, on Saturday, 2nd December. I don’t think I had ever spoken to her before but I remember the wonderful golden hair she had in her prime. It was talking to Gus and Iona that prompted me to visit. They recalled a song about Maggie and confirmed that she was still living in the old house.
She was probably the last person alive to remember my father of whom I have too few memories. When I asked her if she remembered George MacLennan, she replied “Of course.” Her voice was very quiet and it was difficult for me to hear her. She then said “They should have looked after him. He wasn’t well.” For the first time, it occurred to me that after being discharged from hospital in 1946, following his release from PoW camp, my father may have gone back to work on the estate, at that time owned by John Boot of Boots the Chemist, alias Lord Trent. With this insight she gave me something valuable.
On a happier note, she told me she worked as a cleaner at Glenborrowdale Castle and that my father used to give her a lift home on his motorbike.
Barbara adds - "I commented on the death of Maggie MacKinnon but made a mistake about the date that I visited her. It was, of course, Saturday 1st December, not 2nd Dec."
An appreciation
ReplyDeleteThe brief notice of Maggie MacKinnon’s death suggests that she died at home. This is a tribute to the community.
I visited her less than three weeks ago, on Saturday, 2nd December.
I don’t think I had ever spoken to her before but I remember the wonderful golden hair she had in her prime.
It was talking to Gus and Iona that prompted me to visit. They recalled a song about Maggie and confirmed that she was still living in the old house.
She was probably the last person alive to remember my father of whom I have too few memories.
When I asked her if she remembered George MacLennan, she replied “Of course.”
Her voice was very quiet and it was difficult for me to hear her.
She then said “They should have looked after him. He wasn’t well.”
For the first time, it occurred to me that after being discharged from hospital in 1946, following his release from PoW camp, my father may have gone back to work on the estate, at that time owned by John Boot of Boots the Chemist, alias Lord Trent. With this insight she gave me something valuable.
On a happier note, she told me she worked as a cleaner at Glenborrowdale Castle and that my father used to give her a lift home on his motorbike.
Barbara adds - "I commented on the death of Maggie MacKinnon but made a mistake about the date that I visited her. It was, of course, Saturday 1st December, not 2nd Dec."
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