TRIBUTES have been paid to the late Lilly Jamieson, who was highly regarded in her community for her kind and charitable nature.

Margaret Elizabeth Lillian ‘Lilly’ Jamieson (95) passed away peacefully at her residence in Fivemiletown on Friday, January 29.

“Lilly was a very pleasant, joyous wee person,” said her son-in-law, Fred McCrory, as he paid tribute to the mother of his late wife, Joyce.

Talking of Lilly’s kind nature, Fred explained that she was known for her-tea making.

“Nobody came to this yard without getting tea, no matter who they were; she was that type of person,” he said, noting that she was affectionately known as ‘Granny J’ to “everybody”.

“She had great interest in young people, especially the wee tiny ones. She loved to see them coming, and they were always very welcome,” he added.

Lilly married the love of her life, Douglas, in 1950, and they lived together at the family farm on the outskirts of Fivemiletown.

“She was a very industrious person. Lilly was a great cook and a marvellous baker. She would’ve been an inside and outside person, but worked along with her husband for at least 30 years,” said Fred.

Lilly and Douglas had two children, Doreen and Joyce. Heartbreakingly for Lilly, both of her daughters predeceased her.

“Her first daughter, Doreen, took ill with meningitis when she was only seven months old, and she was in a vegetative state until she died in 1975 at the age of 25,” said Fred, explaining that Lilly would have been Doreen’s sole carer until she had to go into hospital to receive specialist care for the last 10 years of her life.

“She looked after Doreen for 14 or 15 years at home. At that time, there was no care or no help; there weren’t the social services in the same way there are today,” added Fred.

After 30 years of ill health, Lilly’s second daughter, Joyce, passed away in 2016.

“She was my wife, and we were married for 36 years, and she was ill for almost 31 of those years,” said Fred, adding: “Lilly outlived both her daughters, and that was very difficult for her. She had a difficult life, but she was a great person; she battled on.”

Throughout her life, Lilly had a strong Christian faith and attended Aughentaine Presbyterian Church.

“Her faith was uttermost in her life,” said Fred, noting that Lilly supported a lot of Christian organisations “financially and in her prayers”.

A very charitable person

Lilly was a very charitable person, and over the years she donated numerous hand-knitted blankets to those in need.

Fred said: “She was a great knitter in later life. She knit baby blankets all the time, and they went away by the dozen to a lady in Fivemiletown who then sent them to an orphanage in Lesotho, South Africa.

“A few years ago, she got a photograph of children with her blankets, which was terrific,” noted Fred.

Lilly passed away a week after her 95th birthday. She had been very alert and active until she took ill last November.

“She just got weaker and weaker,” said Fred, explaining that she died from a kidney infection.

Lilly’s funeral was arranged by Marcus Madill of S. R. Elliott Funeral Directors, and took place on Sunday, January 31. Mourners stood out, at a social distance, to pay their respects as Lilly’s funeral cortège passed by.

“That meant everything to me, because she was very highly held in people’s esteem,” said Fred.

Much loved wife of the late Douglas, and a devoted mother of the late Doreen and Joyce (Fred), a very dear sister of Florence and the late Jean and Richard, and a very special grandmother of Richard (Alanna), Lilly is very sadly missed by all the family circle.

“I’ll miss Lilly’s company, because she and I have been together 39 years; I’ll miss her company immensely,” Fred told this newspaper.