Mrs. Lucinda Fitzsimons

 

ON November 12, 2013, Dunsford lost one of its oldest parishioners. Lucinda Fitzsimons, née Crangle, died peacefully at home two months before her 101st birthday.

Born on January 5, 1913, at The Ward, Ardtole, Ardglass, Lucinda was the second child of John and Elizabeth Jane Crangle. She had five brothers and five sisters and was the last surviving member of that family.

Whilst she enjoyed helping out on the family farm, her father encouraged her to avail of a good education. She attended Dunsford Primary School and the Convent of Mercy in Belfast. After gaining the qualifications needed to pursue a nursing career, she began her training in 1929 at Whiteabbey Hospital, Belfast.

From 1933, she worked at the Benn ENT Hospital on Clifton Street before moving to Newry General Hospital in 1941, where she was a staff nurse until her marriage to John Joseph Fitzsimons in 1947.

The couple began married life at Crossmore where John carried on farming with the support of his new wife, who enjoyed putting her homemaking skills to good use.

Lucinda was incredibly resourceful, making her own baking board which was used every day to produce her famous soda and wheaten bread. She also introduced poultry rearing as a profit-making enterprise on the farm.

She put great emphasis on the importance of education, encouraging her five children to work hard at school and achieve academic success.

Her faith was the essential thread woven throughout her life. She regularly cycled to Ardglass to attend Novenas and was actively involved in parish life.

Her tenacity and spirit carried her through difficult times, in particular, the sudden death of her husband in 1977.

Lucinda enjoyed a great enthusiasm for life, applying for her first passport aged 79 in order to travel to Perth, Australia, to visit her daughter, Anne, and family.

She valued family time, enjoying holidays to Portstewart and, in later years, trips to Carnlough with her children and grandchildren.

On her 100th birthday, Lucinda received a telegram from the Queen as well as a letter of congratulations and the Centenarian Bounty from President Michael D. Higgins.

Lucinda is survived by her children, Patrick, Anne, Maurice, Marie and Margo, daughter-in-law, Una, sons-in-law, Kevin, Raymond and Roy, and twelve grandchildren.