We are here not to mourn but to celebrate Mum’s long life ……Catherine Philomena Carlin nee Mc Gee’s  an ordinary life perhaps… but perhaps not quite so ordinary.
Mum came into this world on the 17 November 1927, some 95 years ago, the seventh child of 11 children her Mother Florence was from Lincolnshire in England and her father Manus was from Donegal. Her father had been a soldier in the Royal Horse Artillery in WW1 and who after the war was blinded in a mining accident and  so he returned to Donegal with his wife and family to take over the family farm.
So mum was born on her family’s farm in Donegal, on the far North Western tip of Ireland in the shadow of Muckish known as the glass mountain.
She was a strong child but by the age of seven she had contracted polio which paralysed her and for which, at that time, there was no cure (the polio vaccine was not developed until 1952)…. before the vaccine, Polio was deadly and killed millions of children worldwide those that survived were most often left permanently paralysed, or crippled for life.
However, for eighteen months her father Manus (remember he was blind) massaged her legs every day to keep her muscles and tendons from succumbing to the virus. A priest is said to have visited her every day to pray for her recovery during this period.
When she finally recovered her left leg was weakened but she was able to walk without the use of the iron leg braces, that so many other children had to suffer. This experience left her with a deep and unbreakable faith and belief in the power of prayer.
 She always had a sharp mind she was able to speak in both English and Irish, I can always remember that when I was learning my times tables she could only check my answers by reciting the tables in Irish…… and she could recite those times tables both forwards and backwards, which seemed to us at the time an incredible feat.
Over the years she loved playing both word and number games …. and she particularly loved playing scrabble with Rosaleen, her favourite TV programme was countdown,… where she would try to beat the contestants in the numbers game and the conundrum and she was still doing this well into her nineties.
She had left school at 14 and in 1941, with war raging in Europe she travelled to Scotland to find work and entered into service… (for the young people here … service does not mean she worked in a call centre or she was the maid in Downton Abbey but rather a servant in one of the big houses in Glasgow, on her days off she cleaned house and helped her older Sister ……  Yes, I know….  this seems crazy to us now as Glasgow at the time was being bombed on a regular basis by Germany …….and she moved there when she was 14 going on fifteen.  It’s hard for us to imagine how tough that must have been…. and how tough she was.
While in Glasgow she met my father John Carlin at a dance, he proposed, to mum but wanted to leave Glasgow to go to London for work.
They went to London and were married right here in St Michael’s church no more than 200 yards from this very spot in February 1946, 77 years ago when the church was but the small building that became St Michaels club and East Ham was such a different place.
The following year 1947 she gave birth to John (Manus) her first son who sadly can’t be here today as he is currently in Australia undergoing treatment for his health.
John was followed by Gerald and myself and then by Kevin, Rosaleen and finally Martin. So she gave birth to six children but I can remember so clearly how overjoyed she was that she eventually had had a baby girl…..Rosaleen, who she adored and cherished particularly after four boisterous boys.
With five children to feed and clothe, money was tight in the early 60’s …. so Mum, as ever, stepped up and worked the evening shift at Trebor’s sweet factory from 5pm to 9 pm….. now this had the added bonus that mum was able to bring home a huge bag of sweets every Friday for which many of us …..or at least our teeth are still paying the price……
After Trebors again not one to rest on her laurels mum decided to learn to touch type, dad bought a second-hand type writer and she went to night school to learn short hand and touch typing, once she had master this she Joined NatWest as a bank clerk and spent some 20 plus years working there where she made a very close knit group of lifelong friends, who all sadly, are no longer with us.
As she approached 60 NatWest had a policy that all women would have to retire at 60 years old, mum and her group argued that this was unfair and discriminatory to the women as the men retired at 65 after a long campaign to change NatWest’s Policy they won their case and Mum was able to continue working beyond 60. This was one of the early cases in which women demonstrated equal rights with men in the work place. 
 To me, Gerald, John Rosaleen, Kevin and Martin she was simply our mum but to Liam, Danielle, Ryan, Giles, Fiona, Sophie Lee and Erin she was Nanny Carlin. She was also great grandmother to 9 great grandchildren and quite recently she became a great great grandmother to two new recent entrants Lola and Johnny.
Of Mum’s 11 brothers and sisters sadly only Mary her younger sister survives, Mary herself is seriously ill and cannot be with us today ……so Louise we pray for Auntie Mary’s recovery……. Mary was interested in her and Mum’s Family tree and has managed to trace their mother’s family back to Margret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor who became king Henry VII after the battle of Bosworth, somehow Rosaleen thought that this might give her the right to move into Winsor Castle …but sadly not …….. anyhow Mum thought the this was funny… Martin not so much.
So how do we remember our Mum, I remember her as one of those selfless women for whom nothing was too much trouble, she had a deep, deep Christian faith and belief in the Church. She did not wear her heart on her sleeve, and I’d have to say that mum was not very emotionally demonstrative like so many of her generation … but she was always willing to help anyone that needed her help.
Over the years we had many of her nieces and nephews come over from Ireland to stay with us often for months and in the case of James Thompson yes you James for years …I know this because he used to sleep in my bed. ….. but there was never any question of them ever staying anywhere else. Her hospitality knew no bounds and she loved having them come to stay.
She had a very special affection for her sister Dorothy’s children Deborah and her brothers and sisters and she was always delighted when they came to visit with their tales of home, back in Donegal. She also had a deep affection for Rosaleen and for Danielle her granddaughter and it was Rosaleen and Danielle that were able to give her real comfort as they stayed with her throughout both the day and the night towards the very end of her life .
I should also mention Martin who in looking after Mum when she was bed bound for the past 12 months did an unbelievable job….. something that I don’t think any of us siblings could have done or matched. So thank you Martin  
I started off by saying that Mum’s was an ordinary life but it was also extraordinary in so many ways …….. she was the life force that brought six of us into this world that loved and nurtured us. It was a life that demonstrated that by working hard and applying yourself you can improve and make something of your life …..and in that she was a great example to us all.
 In her life she touched many people and will be remembered with real love and affection as illustrated by the fact that masses have been said for her in churches in the United States, Australia, Ireland, Northern Ireland, England and indeed even in Ethiopia.
All of us will hold her in our hearts forever.