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Alison Connelly 18th March 1966 to 12th June 2025 |
Eulogy delivered by her daughter Anna Connelly |
St Mary Magdalenes 27th June 2025 |
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As you will all know, my mum was absolutely fantastic. She was very strong-willed, and adventurous, and very, very kind. My mum was also incredibly thoughtful, and spent her entire life making sure that those she loved were well looked after, and I cannot think of a single better person to have in your corner for anything that life throws at you. She was always welcoming, and made room for an extra seat at the table for anyone and everyone that needed it. My mum loved travelling, and she ventured out into the world as soon as she could, meeting so many friends and experiencing so many different cultures and environments. With enthusiastic support from my dad, she always really encouraged Calum and I to do the same, and some of our most treasured memories with our mum are from our family holidays, visiting our grandad’s home town in Italy, winter trips to Finland to see the Northern Lights, a boat trip around the Fjords in Norway, climbing Munros and camping or staying in local hostels across Scotland – mum always found the best places to stay and the coolest activities for us to do as a family. Calum probably won’t appreciate me sharing this, but we were once in Turkey on a family holiday and mum had set her sights on this paragliding experience you could do nearby and she was keen for us all to sign up to it. Calum was a bit nervous of the height of it, but mum knew he would love it if he gave it a go – it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and the views were just amazing. My mum was able to put a slight twist on that well known phrase and it very much became "if your mum jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?". Of course, we all did. She had a very good way of making you feel as though you could do anything, not wanting you to miss out on any opportunities – that is something I think Calum especially takes after her with. In conjunction with her love of adventures, my mum could also be a bit of a wind-up merchant, often with her own mum, my grandma, on the receiving end. One of my favourite stories that shows this, which I´ve heard from so many people, is the time my mum went bungee jumping while across in New Zealand in the early 90s. With her mum back at home worrying about her, my mum thought it would be great fun to send back two postcards letting her know about the bungee jump. The first, a photo of mum sat next to the sign for the bungee jump, and on the back, she wrote "Oh dearie me, love Ali". The second, she waited and sent a day or so later, just to keep her poor mum in suspense, a photo of her mid-jump with the caption "Yippee, love Ali". Her adventurous spirit never disappeared, and mum was always up for whatever crazy scheme any of us came up with – water skiing, ice swimming, aerial obstacle courses, snow mobiling, climbing, road trips, anything you suggested mum would be up for it. That´s why, back when things were starting to open up a bit more after covid and I had my heart set on this adorable cat who just so happened to be in Cyprus at a cat rescue, my mum and I hatched a completely bizarre plan to get him home to us. There were no animal flights running, as there wasn’t capacity to do so post covid, but I was adamant that this wouldn´t stop me. So, we sent Seb off on a flight to Cyprus, and my mum and I set off – we drove first down to Hull from Edinburgh, then we took the ferry to Rotterdam overnight, then we drove up to Amsterdam, the entire time singing along to Amy MacDonald, or listening to our favourite podcast, Crime Junkie. In Amsterdam we met Seb coming off the plane with not one, but three rescue cats – you see, there were other keen homes for these kittens in the UK too and we couldn’t leave any behind! Seb´s flight was delayed though, so we were worried we were going to miss the ferry and be stranded in Rotterdam overnight. Mum wasn’t going to have that though, so she bundled us all into the car and instructed me to call the ferry terminal, Seb to get the directions up, and she floored it – safely I might add – down the motorway to Rotterdam. We got there by the skin of our teeth, navigated through a completely deserted ferry terminal, and arrived at the boat where we were informed they were just waiting on us. The whole time, my mum was in her element – I don´t know what I would have done without her calmness, and her ability to find the humour in the situation. I don’t know many other people who would have been so enthusiastic about getting involved in such a silly, and let´s face it, totally unnecessary scheme, but my mum was just all in from day one. The night when we were on the overnight ferry on the way to collect the cats is probably one of my favourite recent memories with her. Much more than just knowing how to have the best time, mum was also so incredibly kind and thoughtful. Once, when I was really struggling while away at uni, I remember phoning my mum and just being so upset over the phone complaining about how difficult the course work was, and how I was sure I would never in a million years pass any of the exams. A couple of days later, this big box arrived for me in the post, and when I opened it up there were around 50 individual envelopes, with a note from my mum saying that there was one envelope a day until the day after my final exam. Every single day, I got to open a new envelope with a photo, a wee treat, and a message of encouragement from my mum. Some of them were jokey, and some were a bit more serious, and every single day it was exactly what I needed to get through to the next day. She must have taken ages writing everything out and parcelling it all up to send me. I sometimes think back on that, and how most people would probably have just called to check in a bit more, or maybe even suggested I came home for a bit, but it was just so her to go the extra mile to show me how much she loved and supported me, and to encourage me to keep going. There are hundreds, if not thousands of stories that w could share about just how amazing Alison Connelly is, and how profound and enduring an impact she has had on everyone who was lucky enough to know her. There isn’t enough time in the world to list every brilliant thing she did, or to convey just how much she meant to me, to our family, and to her many, many friends. So, for now, I´ll finish up by sharing a short poem by Omar Khayyam that meant a lot to my mum and dad:
Here with a Loaf of Bread, beneath the Bough, |
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