Mrs Mary Jane Norris

MRS Mary Jane Norris, of Quoile Terrace, Old Belfast Road, Downpatrick, died in Lecale Lodge Care Home on January 18, just a few days after celebrating her 102nd birthday.

She was a remarkable lady who lived her life to the full. There was rarely a day, wet or dry, when she did not go out for walk, sometimes wrapped up, battling against a gale, but always recognisable as “Mrs Norris out for her walk.”

She worked as a weaver in the Portadown area before her marriage to Robert in 1937. In 1941 the couple moved to Downpatrick where her late husband, who died in 2000, was a nurse in the Downshire Hospital.

She was a keen knitter for her family, her church and school fund-raising sales. In her later years she knitted for children’s charities in eastern Europe, which she continued up until the week before her death.

She loved sport and enjoyed watching it on television. She was a passionate follower of Downpatrick Cricket Club, which was close to her home, and she would regularly “nip across the road” to check on the score of a match.

She kept herself abreast of the news, both local and national, by radio in the morning and by TV later in the day. Most people visiting or passing by were greeted with “Well, have you anything fresh to tell me?”

Her final three years were spent in Lecale Lodge Care Home, which she loved, her only regret being that she had not moved there sooner.

The Very Rev Henry Hull, Dean of Down, conducted the funeral service in Down Cathedral on January 21, which was followed by interment in the family grave in the adjoining churchyard.

Mrs Norris is survived by her daughter, Iris, and grandsons Jonathan and Simon. She was predeceased by her younger daughter, Helen, who was killed in a road accident in 1968.