Mrs. Elizabeth Graham

THE death of Elizabeth Graham (nee McCoubrey), of 16 Braeside Avenue, Downpatrick, has saddened her family and friends. She was 64.
The eldest daughter of Joseph and Eleanor McCoubrey, formerly of 4 Ardpatrick Avenue, Downpatrick, Betty, as she was better known, battled a lengthy illness during which she showed remarkable courage before passing away peacefully on Thursday, September 18, in her home surrounded by her loving and adoring family.
Betty began her school life as a young pupil of the Convent of Mercy Primary School before becoming a student at St. Mary’s High School. Her working life began as a sewing machinist at Grayson’s Fabrics factory on the Saul Road. On its closure she moved to the Talmak factory on the Strangford Road where again she was a sewing machinist making belts and braces.
As a young teenager during the sixties, like many of her generation she was an enthusiastic Radio One and Radio Caroline listener and during her employment years in the factories her constant companion was her little black radio, which she played constantly at work whilst she happily stitched and sewed away.
The showband scene was in its zenith then and Betty’s favourite bands were Dickie Rock and the Miami Showband and Gene and the Gents. She rarely missed a Sunday night at the Canon’s Hall. During Lent the parish halls in the South would be closed so the ‘big’ bands travelled North for bookings where their slashed fees were more affordable to parishes here. Betty enjoyed these Sunday concerts in the Canon’s Hall.
She finished her working days as an assistant nurse in the Downshire Hospital before illness forced her early retirement in 1996.
In March 1970, she married Raymond, the son of Hugh-John and Frances Graham, of Ballynoe, her husband of 44 years. They had three children, Martin, Sharon and Fiona.
Raymond and Betty became proud grandparents on the birth of Fiona’s son, Stephen. Over the years more grandchildren were presented to them — Sharon’s son, Matthew, and Fiona’s other children, Conaill, Emma, Eoin and Corey.
As a devout Catholic, one of her proudest moments came when her son Martin, following his training at St. Malachy’s College, Belfast, and St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, was ordained a priest in 1998. He is now the Parish Priest of the Redeemer Parish, Lagmore.
Betty enjoyed her yearly visits to Lourdes in the company of friends but as her illness and pain intensified, she found herself more and more confined to her home. Hospitalised three times in the last year, these became an imposition and when she determined there would be no more ‘useless trips’, as she called them, to hospital, she devoted her remaining time to Raymond and to her children and grandchildren.
Betty had sharp intuition and a wicked sense of humour but she had also a deeply caring manner and unwavering faith in God. She made many friends during her lifetime and this was reflected in the huge attendance at her wake and funeral and later at the graveside.
Her Requiem Mass took place on Sunday, September 21 in St. Patrick’s Church, Downpatrick. It was celebrated by her son Fr. Martin and concelebrated by family friends, Fr. Patrick Devlin, Fr. Brian McCann, Fr. Eugene O’Neill and Fr. Garrett Campbell and was presided over by Bishop Anthony Farquhar. She was then interred in St. Patrick’s Cemetery, Legamaddy, which she had chosen as her place of rest many years earlier.