‘A role model for us all’ - Late Tess Cleary (née Hoey) Ballyshannon

The funeral took place at the weekend of the late Tess Cleary (née Hoey), Bishop Street, Ballyshannon, who was a much beloved mother and grandmother as well as one of the town’s most highly respected citizens as a caring nurse.

Tess passed away peacefully at home surrounded by her loving family last Wednesday, August 9.

At her Funeral Mass on Saturday last, a very large congregation heard Kilbarron parish priest, Fr Paddy Dunne, describe the way that Tess had touched so many lives in a most beautiful and special way.

Fr Dunne was assisted by Fr Gerard Daly, the Rock, Fr John Pharr, P.P. Kinlough, Fr Thomas Keogan P.E and Fr Dermot Burke, P.E. and sympathy was also extended by retired Bishop of Clogher, Liam McDaid, who is a second cousin of the deceased and had been unable to attend.

Fr Dunne described how the local chapel, through her involvement there on many levels, “was a second home for Tess and she has now gone home to God, a God whom she absolutely loved and believed in.”

Later in his homily, he said that while he was “the new man on the block”, with “brief encounters you get to meet the heart and soul of someone and I had the beautiful privilege with the brief encounters of meeting Tess and her heart and soul. And I was deeply touched by her gentleness, by her sincerity, by her loving care, her concern; I was deeply touched by her faith, I was deeply touched by her beautiful and gentle presence.

He recalled how Tess had recalled stories of her life, to both her children and grandchildren, a life that had begun back in 1934, to parents William and Lizzie Hoey.

Tess was one of fifteen children, growing up in Abbey View and where she spent most of her life except for a period when she was training in Preston, England as a nurse.

He described how “she had met the love of her life”, Tommy in what was described as an “American wake” for her sister Patricia and she was engaged at 19.

After training as a nurse, back in 1953, she returned to Ireland in 1957, getting married in September of that year “and the rest is history”.

Tess was best known for both working in the Sheil Hospital, and her love for the same hospital, as well as the many people that she looked after and cared for, or being the first to comfort a bereaved family relations and friends.

He was struck how the family home was a very busy house, with its comings and goings and it was lovely to experience the open heart, beyond the 11 children and where there was always room. He recalled the story of when Fr McCormack landed at the house with ten orphans from Dubin and “Mammy packed them all in”.

That beautiful gift of helping others came naturally to her, was never a chore and always given with an open heart, and those at the other end of that help always felt both loved and respected, he added, with the deceased always putting her family and others first.

He added: “Independent but never imposing, caring with a great sense of humour, a droll wit at times with one liners, warm, affectionate, the kettle was always on, cigarettes with coffee in the past, memories of watching ‘the Chase’ or ‘Murder she wrote’, and keeping up to date everything else, current affairs or the way that she would say, ‘I don’t know about that’, if she was told something she did not agree with.”

‘Oh Sacred!’, was another diplomatic reply, on hearing certain conversations or words.

Fr Dunne said it was heartening to hear her grandchildren describe Tess as a role model for them and the beautiful testament that “she lived life the way it should be lived”.

He reminded them that values that were in their heart and bestowed by them by their grandmother, would always remain in their hearts; “chose them because they will always bring you far, a wonderful journey of love and of life and an excitement of coming to know people in a beautiful way and the open heart that she had, let that be your heart as well”.

He said that Tess was “a role model for us all”.

Predeceased by her beloved husband Tommy, she was the much-loved mother of Treasa, Séamie, Anne, Thomas, John, Margaret, Mark, Billy, Paul, Michael and Libby.

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Tess will be sadly missed but fondly remembered by her children, 17 grandchildren, sons and daughters-in-law, her brothers Alo and Brendan, her sisters Rita Tuohy and Angela Moriarty, the extended Cleary and Hoey families, neighbours and friends to whom the deepest of sympathy is extended.

Following Mass of the Resurrection, at St. Patrick's Church, burial took place afterwards in the Abbey Cemetery.

Family flowers donations in lieu of flowers, if so desired, to North West Hospice c/o Patsy McCauley Funeral Director.