Families Eh ...

Me poor ould Grandmother having had quiet enough living done for one life tipped her hat and bowed out last week. She was the sprightly age of 95 and although in good health right up till the end she looked every single day of her 95 years just before she died. But a stroke and two heart attacks will do that to you I suppose. Fair play to her though she lived to 95 and then went out like a rock star having a stroke whilst on the loo, Elvis hadn’t a patch on her. The funeral was a mixture of celebration and sombre reflection. Between siblings fighting and not talking and cousins riding other it was a rather curious event. She left quiet a legacy though and when the numbers were read out from the altar they generated a few gasps. She had 17 children, 48 grand children and 62 great grand children. Living to 95 after having 17 children is a feat in itself, she had her first at 16 and her last at 47, my grandfather was some boy too mind. He sired his last child at 68. Sixty fuckin eight! He couldn’t walk by all accounts but there was nothing wrong with his fishing tackle. My father use to say that when granddad had no trousers on he was in his working clothes. There was only 15 years between my grandmother and her eldest child. My aunt is now 80, the eldest of the 17 and looked more like her sister than her daughter. In more recent years my aunt would invite my grandmother to come stay in her house. But my grandmother would always refuse stating they were practically the same age and sure where was the craic in that. In a family of 17 children it must have been hard to get attention, being raised in two or three rooms in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s life was tough, but sure they were happy, or so I’m told. Judging by the cross section of deep psychological problems I witnessed amongst the 17 I have my doubts. A finer bunch of misfit, conservative, liberal, in breeding, non breeding, alcoholic, tee totalling, chain smoking, non smoking, over eating, foul mouthed, loud talking, downright hilarious shower of cunts you’d be hard pressed to find and I’m damn proud to be part of it.