Month: August 2020

In Memoriam

~ Janet McKee ~ Leave a comment

In this epidemic of Covid I think back to previous epidemics. In my youth the scare word was POLIO. I knew only one person who got polio and that was the town doctor’s son. The doctor was Dr. Grinold who in his official capacity attended all the Belmont High School football games. The Grinolds lived fairly near us. The son Jack carried his arm in a sling. He was 2 or 3 years older than I was.

I must search my genealogy records to find any reference to the “Spanish” flu of 1918-19.

In the prevailing atmosphere of “death” my thoughts have turned to all those who have died before their time – an expected lifetime – their lives cut short.

Hope Hubbard who died in her early 30’s. She was a housemate in Cambridge in the early 1960’s. Her life was cut short by lung cancer – she was a heavy smoker

Jan Bartlett a close friend and neighbor – we were the same age – but she died of lung cancer in her 60s She did not smoke, was extremely active, a Girl Scout leader, a collector of everything for War on Want, a staunch supporter of her clerical scholarly husband, a very keen gardener

George Baird – husband of Honor, George attended Campbell College in Belfast as did my husband Ian but George was a few years younger, we knew George and Honor in Dublin starting in 1969, a mutual friend Lucia Frontini Boyle from my years at Middlebury College in Vermont came to visit the Bairds in Dublin in 1969, Luci looked me up and introduced me to the Bairds. At that time the Bairds lived on Weston Road in Dundrum. We moved to Dundrum a few months later and were within walking distance of the Bairds, years later George died of cancer. He was in his 60s

Connie Clifford – a friend from the days when I worked at Arthur D Little in Cambridge Mass. She came from a staunchly Catholic family. Several of her brothers were priests. She died in her early 30’s – another cancer victim

Maura Shaffrey – a very close friend in Ireland, Ian knew the Shaffreys initially from his days in Edinburgh in the early 1960’s, I met them when we went to live in Dublin in 1968, Maura battled cancer for a number of years, but cancer won in 1996 – Maura was in her 60’s

Christine McKee – my sister-in-law, a fighter who thought she had the all clear, 2 days later the doctor phoned and said they had made a mistake, she died a month later at age 54, another cancer victim

Too Many Things To Write About Today

~ Janet McKee ~ 2 Comments

I want to write about the Corona Virus. I want to write about life in Bhutan. I want to write about friends dying young. I want to write about overqualified aides. I want to write about Hiroshima Day. I want to write about being a foreigner in Ireland. I want to write about caring for my husband with dementia. I want to write about seeing a friend from Berkeley in the 1960’s. I want to write about the tangle of technology. I want to write about purchasing online. I want to write about my genealogy. I want to write about my knitting week in St. Margaret’s Hope in South Ronaldsay Orkney.

An old lady with a lot of things to do

Well there you have it. A list of possible future blogs.

Struggling To Recall……..

~ Janet McKee ~ Leave a comment

I’m trying to recall the details of surgery on my right hand. The surgery was performed by Dr. who was very nice. He had a good manner. Very reassuring. Numerous tests had been performed and repeated on my hand. The doctor was puzzled but finally referred me for surgery. I was overnight in the Mt. Carmel and the surgery was performed the next morning. Afterward I was allowed to go home. My hand was heavily bandaged and I wasn’t able to drive. A minor detail which I hadn’t foreseen. I phoned a friend, Jan Bartlett, and she was able to come get me. It was sometime in the summer of 1995. Ian was away – I think he was in Nairobi for a month. A short consultancy in his first year of semiretirement. The sons must have been away for whatever reasons. After a week I went back to the Mt. Carmel to have the stitches removed by the doctor who had performed the surgery. When I got home from that trip I discovered that one stitch remained. A nurse friend, Gwen Lew, worked at the Mt. Carmel and she was able to remove the stitch. The doctor was on his way to County Kerry for his holidays. Gwen and Jan both died of cancer not too many years later. The doctors – I don’t know – maybe lived to old age. Not like the doctor who delivered all 3 sons in the Mt. Carmel. He died of cancer at age 61.

African Languages

~ Janet McKee ~ Leave a comment

I’m intrigued to think of the multitude of languages spoken on the African continent. My experience is very limited but I got to be acquainted with a few when I worked for the Library of Congress Field Office in Nairobi Kenya. We were acquiring periodicals from all the countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. I was in charge of an indexing project which resulted in our publication Quarterly Index to Periodical Literature, Eastern and Southern Africa. This journal continued to be published long after I left Kenya. It ran for 15 years until technology took over and made it redundant.

One of the aides here at Ida Culver is from Zimbabwe. Her language is Shona when she speaks to members of her family. Another aide is from Burkina Faso – the official language of her country is French, she also speaks Moore and Fula. A student helper in the kitchen was wearing a Harambe bracelet. His native language would be Swahili. Two aides on the night shift are from Ethiopia – they speak Amharic. Another aide is from Eritrea. Her language is Tingrinya.

Through The Lens Of History

~ Janet McKee ~ Leave a comment

One of our aides here at Ida Culver is from Zimbabwe. She tells me that she used to be a pastor. I asked her today if she was in Zimbabwe when it became independent from Britain. Yes she said, she was grown up, married, and expecting their first child. I posed this question more thinking of Ian Smith and Harold Wilson in the 1960’s. If these names don’t mean anything to you, don’t worry, it means you are too young. This lead me to read up on my history. Zimbabwe didn’t gain its independence until 1980, 15 years after the Prime Minister Ian Smith declared Independence – his U.D.I. Sir Humphrey Gibbs took refuge in Government House.

My experience of African countries achieving independence was based on Kenya. I first visited Kenya in 1964, only a few months after Kenya had achieved independence on December 3, 1963. And then I went to Kenya again in 1966 and lived there for 2 years. The road to Independence was by no means smooth. The Mau Mau terror/violence lasted 8 years – 1952-1958.

Years later we went to Ghana, which was the first British Colony in Africa to be granted Independence in 1960. The British presence in West Africa did not mean settlement and land ownership. A different kettle of fish altogether.

Where To Start

~ Janet McKee ~ Leave a comment

For several days I’ve had so many things to write about but haven’t been able to navigate the way to access my blog to write. Rather frustrating. The headline this morning is the death of John Hume at age 83. John Hume was a towering figure in the political process in Northern Ireland. He was able to steer a very divided Northern Ireland to peace. The divide might still be there but the guns have been laid down. The complications of the history of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.