A walk down Memory Lane

Iris Bradley, from Nelson Drive, recalls how her charity work through the Girls Brigade touched the life of a woman less fortunate than herself...

“I have one memory that stands out.

I was in the Girls Brigade and I must have been about 10 or 11 years old.

It was at Easter time and we went around the doors collecting ordinary eggs, and when we had a number of eggs we went to the workhouse, which is now the library.

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We took the eggs, and I’ll never forget it, the smell that was in there in the workhouse when we went in.

I remember there was an old woman in there and she was wearing a skirt that was to the ground and she was stirring this big pot of porridge and I went over to her and gave her an egg, and she just grabbed the egg in her hands and she put it up to her heart and held onto the egg really gently so as not to break it.

There were wee kids running around that were not allowed to get an egg.

We done that visit to the workhouse very year and I will never forget it.

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I eat porridge now, but back then it turned my stomach to see that big vat of porridge. I can smell it even to this day...

That poor lady, she was so old and valued that egg and held it the same way I would hold a wee bird...”