Missing Daisy (Aug 1922 – Dec 2015) An Appreciation by Christy Hogan

Pictured: Mary "Daisy" Hogan (centred).

Pictured: Mary “Daisy” Hogan (centred).

Mary “Daisy” Hogan passed away on 22nd December 2015. She was 93 years old. She was as old as the state itself.

Mum was born in York Street and went to school in Loretto College on St. Stephen’s Green. Her family moved to Ringsend in the 1930s. After school, mum became a Bookies’ Clerk in Kilmartin’s Bookmakers. Later she would work for Cecil Fine and Terry Rogers.

Things I miss about Daisy are her knitting jerseys for the family in the Fifties and Sixties. This continued until her fingers became swollen with arthritis.

An ardent reader, her favourite authors were Anne Tyler, Maeve Binchy, Reginald Hill, Ngaio Marsh, and Agatha Christie. She was very fond of crossword puzzles and in later years would do large print crosswords due to failing sight.

I miss getting her The Mirror and Herald newspapers with their crossword puzzles, and not forgetting her twenty Rothman cigarettes. I miss her listening to Lyric FM radio and all the classical music they play. Most of all, I miss her giving out to me, which may sound strange, and telling me to go and do something or other.

Hopefully she is in a lovely place now with books in abundance and crosswords to fill her days to her heart’s content.

May she rest in peace.