[continued from previous message]

Continuing on now in 2014, me and mum are living here at 29 Merriman Crescent still. Greg (my brother) is staying with us at the moment, and working at Centrelink, trying to get things right with him and his family situation, with Christie (his wife)
really wanting to live in Perth were she is from, and Greg probably preferring the east coast. But if Greg continues on in the work they will probably move over here yet again. Mum keeps her day busy with a lot of church related activities, mostly the '
Bailey's group' were they pray and chat, and some gentle exercise meetings and other things. Trish Kirby remains mum's closest friend, but Jenny Knee is also a part of her life. Of course, Brigid and Jacinta (my sister's) take up a lot of her time as
does the family in general (were all her worries come from, she would tell you). Mum helped us all out recently with some money which came into the family, and a lot of work has been done on the house to improve it. New kitchen
a while back and now a new
bathroom and toilet and back door and painted rooms. It is looking quite good the house now, and there is work being done on the roof soon to fix up some broken tiles and other things. Recently mum was at a Galong weekend (and I think Brigid went as well)
and it was run by a nun from melbourne. She enjoys her Galong retreats and they revitalize her life. Matt's death (my brother) last year affected mum strongly, but life moves on (as she said the other day) and time heals things I
guess. The death in the
family has been accepted and Mum is strong and has coped with it. She visits the Cemetery were Dad is buried with Matt from time to time and has a few quiet
thoughts for them. They are buried in the Queanbeyan Lawn cemetery, just near the Jerrabomberra
township, which is not that far from Macarthur were we live actually. Mum continues to read her thriller books quite a bit, which is how she occupies herself, and his been knitting all sorts of things recently. Some of them have been for people in East
Timor (and she asked me were that was) to help them out. A lot of her time is knitting and reading and watching TV and usually she makes the evening meal for
the family. She enjoys watching TV a lot, and channel 7Two is probably her favourite. Most
mornings she watches 'Sunrise' on channel 7 with David Koch and Natalie Barr and Samantha Armytage and co, and she enjoys that greatly. I usually sit with her for a while and watch a lot of it as well (and its a great show, channel 7.
Really well done).
She usually watched the Morning Show with Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies aftewards, but recently has been watching Studio 10 or whatever it is called on
channel 10 for something new. The mid day movie is commonly watched and Escape to the Country, Bargain
Hunt and then things like My Kitchen Rules and Masterchef are very popular. The
British Crime stuff like Inspector Morse and Endeavour and Jack Frost and others are always watched, as well as Midsomer Murders and Poirot. All Saints we have been watching
recently in the afternoon, and City Homicide, and she enjoys 'A Place Called Home' on 7 on sunday nights a great deal. Very good show again channel 7. TV has been a big part of mum's life for a long time now, because it gives you something to do and
keeps you informed. Her life is really quite balanced on how she spends it and she seems happy enough. There are usually outings from time to time with Brigid, especially places like Gold Creek were they buy things they like and they have gone to England
3 times now (I think) in recent years, and have returned with lots of knick-knacks. She spends time talking with the neighbours, including Bernadette
across the road, Doreen and David Grima next door, who have always been faithful friends, and Diana
Archer down the street in lower Macarthur. Mum is generally a conservative lady
and doesn't approve of a lot of my musical tastes. And she obviously has somewhat conservative views on sexual morals and thinks shows on TV push it a bit too much on various
issues from time to time. I tend to think she is somewhat a product of her era (as a lot of older people are I guess), and perhaps doesn't easily connect with
the idea that our latter generations have, in general, a lot more liberal standards. But she
gets along with the world and the culture well enough and is happy enough and is by no means a fish out of water. I should probably take Solomon's advice more and listen to the wisdom of my mother more, because she probably knows what she is talking
about.

Mum was telling me today (Shrove Tuesday 2016) about how when she was younger she used to attend the Shrove Tuesday Fancy Dress party at her Church, Sacred Heart Church, in Hull. She went as a Red American Indian a couple of times, and
had cocoa on her
face, and her brother Terrence went one year as a Cowboy singing a song, and her brother Gerald went one year in a Dutch girls outfit. Today me and mum had pancakes, and this really begins the religious season of Lent, which starts tomorrow on Ash
Wednesday. She was recalling some childhood memories on the subject. In the last while mum and me and have visited my sister Brigid's place in Calwell for dinner a couple of times. The first time Brigid's whole family was there and we
had a lovely
chicken and bacon dish, a risotto of some kind. The other night Brigid invited us over again, and we had pork chops with potato and honey carrots. We watched 'Our Zoo' on ABC, which I really enjoyed, but mum mostly read her book. I think
she is still
reading the same one, which is a Wilbur Smith book, one of her favourite authors. At the moment mum is in very good health, looking at her, seems strong
enough in both her mind and body, but she sometimes forgets minor things. It doesn't appear to be
Alzheimers though or anything like that really – mainly just older age. She's
quite a strong lady still, and it feels like she will be around for quite some time yet. Recently she went with Trish Kirby to see the movie 'Joy' which was alright as she
put it. In the middle of last year she visited England again with Brigid, and had a good time, and this year her brother Gerald is probably going to be staying with us here in Canberra, and with the strong possibility Greg and his family will be coming
over from Perth for Christmas over here, it will be a big family gathering Christmas this year. All in all mum is doing well at this time in February in 2016. Anyway, I will continue on with this again some time and share a few more
details about my life
with Mary Daly from younger years.

It's the 2nd of July 2016, and I have some new stuff on mum. It's been a sedate
enough last 6 months for mum here at 29 Merriman Crescent. Mostly life as usual. She got involved with a Special Catholic Presentation group on 'The Dark
Night of the Soul'
for a little bit, and we had a chat on that. She shared some of the ideas of how life usually is a travel up to God on top of the spiritual mountain in the traditional view, but in the Dark Night of the Soul view, there are periods were you dip right
down for a while, in soulsearching melancholia, before regaining your ground and continuing on upwards. There seemed to be some truth in that idea from my perspective. She mentioned that in her Baileys group she's getting a little bored now with some of
the conversations, one of the reasons being that they don't really discuss Vinnies work much anymore, and just chat about life. They'll now only be doing the group twice a month, in the first and third week of each month, instead of every week. Mum likes
to share anecdotes of her life story with me regularly, and talks about people from church and her friends and family she grew up with. We continue to watch shows like Bargain Hunt and Family Feud, and we are enjoying Masterchef Australia quite a lot,
which is probably the best show we watch together a bit, but I'm in my room a lot of the time. Today she is off voting, and says she will probably vote for Labour, but might vote for the Christian party. We chatted about things, and I suggested she
should vote for the party which best represents her values, and she said that was probably the Labour party. She is shopping also this afternoon, which she usually does about once per week, and Trish Kirby usually, but not always, shops with her. It's
Woolworths more often than not, but sometimes Aldi and Coles as well. Nearly always in Tuggeranong somewhere, and Erindale has long been the place she likes
to go. Her, Trish and Matt used to do the shopping after church each Sunday nearly every week,
but since Matthew died a few years back, and recently since Trish has starting going to another Catholic Church in Tuggeranong, things are on no set pattern for when she gets the shopping done, and she just gets it done when she can. I have a little bit
of a winge when we're running low, but she tells me its not easy, and she does the best she can do. She's great though, and at 78, soon turning 79 (just a few
days away on the 7th), she's in good health, and can appear to still do the things she does
physically well enough. She's not an olympic athlete by any means at her age, but she's no couch potato either. Mostly her health is good, and she's a strong
and determined lady to live out life to the very end. She's no quitter. Her Baileys group
friends gave her some nice birthday presents the other day, and Jenny Knee made
a nice cake, which I got to eat most of when she brought it home, as she didn't
really fancy it. She's going to England yet again next year, and of course her brother Gerald
will be visiting us and staying with us here in Canberra later on in the year for about 3 months. Mum is a content lady, has no plans for ever moving house again, and is completely settled here at 29 Merriman. Her life is still full and active enough,
and I sense she is mostly happy with the fortunes of her children. She has concerns that Alan (Jacinta's husband) is a bit too selfish, but she does say she likes him. Arguments between us aren't terribly fierce much anymore, and we
are always on talking
terms even right after a tiff. We get along well enough as a family, and life is good enough for the most part at the moment in the life of Mary Philomena Daly nee Baker.

That's all for now.

Daniel Thomas Andrew Daly

Canberra, Australia

2011 AD / CE & 2014 AD

6175 SC & 6178 SC

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)