Another generation passes

My mother passed away in the early hours of this morning after a long illness. Her last couple of days were uncomfortable as multiple problems finally caught up with her, so my brothers and I all thought it a welcome relief for her from the recent stresses. Not an easy thing to think.

This is Christina Florence Isobel Mitchell (1926-2012) in much happier days; in her wedding dress on May 6th 1952, when she married my late father - Donald McLean (1925-83) - in the West Kirk at West Calder, where her father was a police sergeant.

Their first son died in infancy, then I arrived in January 1955, followed by my two brothers in 1958 and 1962. The three of us went to see her this morning; to pay our own tributes to the person who had brought us into and guided us through this world. We hope she is happy again. This is my little tribute to her.

"When death's dark stream I ferry o'er,
A time that surely shall come;
In Heaven itself, I'll ask no more,
Than just a Highland welcome."

Robert Burns