Norah Cox nee Ratigan + 3 March 2011 aged 98

The last remaining aunt in the generation above me died last week. She had been well-cared for in a nursing home in the same village in which she had lived most of her life. My understanding was that she was the second eldest child of her parents, Lawrence and Ellen, (my paternal grandparents). Her elder brother Lawrence and younger brothers Bernard (my father), John and Willie (a child) together with her sister Nellie, all pre-deceased her.

She married John Cox and they adopted Anthony, my cousin alongside whom I was brought up. Anthony, called Tony, was a school teacher and school head. His father was caretaker of Cardinal Langley School, Middleton. Tony married Dymphna Ryle and so my family was linked with the Murphy family who figured much in my childhood through the Ryle-Murphy link.

Tony and Dympna have four children, my second cousins, Gregory, Eleanor, Magdalene and Damian.

Norah has been well supported over the years since her beloved Tony died. Her daughter in law and her four grandchildren have been the best.

Norah worked with my mother Mary O'Brien from the mid 1920s. They attended the same parish church and school in Castleton. Norah was a deeply pious good woman who worked tirelessly for the church being sacristan for  many years. She was a kind woman and the result of her and John Cox's love was manifest in Anthony and the marriage he had with Dympna.

Norah, having worked closely over decades with the clergy, had few illusions about their fallibility. She she served them and at times saved a number of them from the silliness that having a non married, six foot above contradiction, life can bring. Her piety was legendary and it was not false but genuine.

May she rest in peace and rise in glory.

"Bring flowers of the rarest
Bring blossom the fairest...."


Of that generation's children there remain,after my sister Margaret died in 1986, my cousins Cathryn Wardle nee Ratigan, Anne Stansfield nee Ratigan and myself Bernard the last of this branch of the Ratigan family.