Margarets trip Home 1999

In 1998 the year Scott and I took an assignment in Europe one of my many goals in that assignment was to rekindle the flame on my childhood farm. I had only spent a few short weeks there in the last 20 years

From A visit to the Farm in Goorey

Since then it has fallen down and my family has built a new small house up near the road. Even though I miss the old house, I am glad they had this comfort.

From A visit to the Farm in Goorey

From A visit to the Farm in Goorey

One of the memories that stayed in my heart in that time away from home was seeing my mother and father sitting by the fire or having tea on the little table with its white lace table cloth.

Since I was home last my father went to heaven and my mother moved out of the little house, to a smaller house closer to Londonderry, to live closer to my sister. My brother bought the land, and my sister fixed the house on the farm up for all of the family to spend a little soul searching time in when they can come home.

Since we are all spread out over England, Ireland, and America, and getting older it gets harder to get together. In 1999 I planned a 2 week trip back to the farm my goals there were:

To sit by the fire like my mother and father did having tea on the little table

Visit my fathers grave

To go to the upper fields

To find the well we used to carry the drinking water from

To just wander all over the little farm

To have a picnic with my mother on the sandy beach
Visit My old School

To make a long story short I did not get the true felling I was after. Carrying 25 years of baggage from my life since I had left as a carefree 18 year made that impossible, but it still was really good.

I did all the things I wanted to do on the farm. Scott and I took a lovely hike along the MalinHead coast which is the end of Ireland and very close to our family farm. I know there will be another trip back.

We cannot bring the old days back It fills my heart with pain, But we can share some memories now our home is alive again. I took a walk up on the farm the well to find, No More water , stone or stage it's all moved away with time. Our Home is there for all to share A pretty site to see, Us all around the Table Having tea,

A trip down Memory Lane

In November 2007 I took a trip home to the old sod and had a reunion with my three sisters my brother, and my mother. It was the first time in 20 year we were all home together with no husbands or wives just the children that grew up together. Even though my father had passed away, we still felt like we had never left home.

There was way to many highlights on this trip to write them all. It would be like writing a book, but I will talk about a few that are very much an Irish custom. Every day many people just dropped in for a cup of tea, a glass of wine or just to sing a song. There was lots of Irish dancing, and singing Irish songs. Our days were full of love, friendship, and laughter. We had many trips to take every day to renew old memories.

One of my favorite trips was to my grandmothers old house which is over 500 hundred years old and is still standing in memory of the great people who lived in it and loved it. Just to give you an idea of the Irish hospitably a old neighbor where my grandma live heard we were coming to visit the old house and went in and started the old hearth fire in the kitchen and in the little sitting room. It looked like my grandma was still living there even though it was over 50 years since my grandma went to heaven. Believe me we left a lot of tears there

Then there was days when the sisters that grew up together would try to get away from everybody and go to the pub to have a glass of wine together but,The boys that used to chase us on their bikes as we grew up chased now in their
cars as old men.

I will not bore you with any more of this story as you might already know the Irish are storytellers.