Another shot in the series ‘May The Road Rise Up To Meet You’ - stories of the Irish that came to the UK by Steve Reeves
Mary Coughlan is 78. She was born in Cork but has lived in Waterloo in Central London for the last 60 years.
She said it was tough at first back in the ‘50s, but in the ‘60s, everyone started to earn more money, and life in London ‘got good.’
Mary was sitting on a bench outside a pub when I took this shot. She wasn’t drinking. She’s just finished a Mcdonalds’ apple pie which she says is a treat she sometimes has before getting the bus home.
Mary never married. She loved travelling too much.
She does have a long-term friend, Wilfred. He’s German and ‘is a very kind man.’ They met on a bus in Regent Street and have been together for years. He keeps the flat tidy, and she told me that he will be back there now cooking her some fish for tea as it’s Friday.
I asked her what her family back in Ireland thought about her not getting married. She said her ‘mammy’ was fine about it after a while because she could see that Mary was happy.
When she first came to England, Mary told me that her mum would phone her from Cork twice a week to check that she was okay and eating properly. This carried on until just four years ago when her mum passed away aged 104 and Mary was 74. ‘She is dearly missed,’ said Mary.
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