One day at Long Tower Boys’ school
my brother, Dermot,
was asked to write a description
of his Mammy.
After giving it some thought
Dermot wrote, painstakingly,
“My Mammy is a cooker”.
(What can I say –
it was the 1960’s!)

These words come back to me
tonight
as I attempt to describe
to a friend of mine
what sort of person Mammy is.

My conclusion is somewhat different
from Dermot’s.

Rather than describing Mammy
as being a cook-er,
I would describe her
as being a pray-er.

You see, when I think about it,
Mammy seems to spend
a lot of time
praying
for other people’s intentions
(usually ours!)

When something goes wrong
in life,
Dermot, Peter, Brenda and I
get straight on the phone to Mammy
asking her
to say a wee prayer
for whatever is troubling us –
driving tests or medical tests,
illness or injury,
worries about work,
mental health issues –
prayers for ourselves,
prayers for our children,
prayers for our friends.

Mammy’s response
is always swift
and is always the same,
“I’ll light the holy candle.”
Mammy then starts her prayers
and they continue
for a long, long time.

This morning it strikes me
that Mammy really intercedes for us,
a bit like Our Lady.

I turn to Our Lady
in prayer
and I turn to Mammy
for prayer.

Thanks you, Lord,
for the two mothers
you have given me –
Mammy in Derry
and Mary, my mother in heaven,
both of whom help me
so much
by their prayers.

I suppose I can say
that both of my mothers
are pray-ers
(not cook-ers!)

© Claire Murray, 17th August 2020