Granny Yuill

[Moonwatcher]

Granny Yuill

First posted on SP 15 February 2004



Granny Yuill was a ‘wee wummin’. She was my ‘Mammy’s Mammy.’ Dressed in her long dark coat, big brooch always pinned to the collar, the shiny black handbag and the hat – always the hat, with the big hat pin stuck into it. As a child I used to think the pin drilled into her head and this was what kept her hat on in the wild Glasgow weather. I thought it must hurt.

Granny Yuill came from the Gladstone side of the family. Proud people from the Clydesdale region in Lanark. Horse people, ploughmen. They knew horses. I watched an uncle of mine recently with a horse, it was amazing – a gift that runs in that side of the family. I didn’t inherit it.

Granny Yuill was a protestant, as all my ancestors seem to have been. All staunch, orangemen. I put a stop to it some years ago when I gave up religion altogether. Granny Yuill would have been disappointed. Her faith was everything to her. She used to always be going to ‘meetings’ at the local Blochairn Church or the ‘Foundry Boys’ Mission. Church bus runs to Rothsay, Dunoon and Kilmun were always on the go. I recently acquired old photos taken from those bus runs. All the ‘wee wimmin’ standing in rows in front of the MacBraynes bus. All in the long coats, with brooches, black handbags and hats with pins stuck in them! And right at the front, centre, in every one of those photos is my Granny Yuill, big smile on her face.

In the Garngad we used to live very close to a catholic convent/hospice called ‘The Little Sisters of the Poor’.
It was a forbidding looking building set behind a high wall and sturdy gate. Granny Yuill would tell my brother and I of ‘things’ she had seen going on from her tenement window which she claimed overlooked the wall into the courtyard of the convent. Years later, I realised that she could see nothing of the kind, her window looked out onto Millburn Street like everyone else. But we loved the stories. I wont go into the details but we would sit, wide eyed, as she’d regale us with the latest goings on within the wicked world of the convent. In truth, if half of what she told us had been true, half the population of Garngad would have been queuing up to get in and join the fun! Some may even have changed their religion! But it was all nonsense of course, a consequence of the bigotry of the times.

Both my Granny and my Mother shared this attitude. They would never walk down the same side of the street (Garngadhill) as The Little Sisters convent. They would cross the street as they approached and recross once they were past. The same thing happened if nuns approached. They considered it bad luck to pass a nun on the same side of the street! At the first sight of nuns ahead, my mother (or Gran) would grab us by the arm and hurtle across the street, much to the bewilderment of the nuns. It was bad enough in the Garngad where traffic was light, but I used to dread being in Sauchiehall St in the city on a Saturday afternoon and entering a ‘nun zone’. Amid a screeching of brakes, horns and curses, we’d be dragged across the street and ‘safety’ on the other side. How we survived those days I’ll never know.

Near the end of her life Granny Yuill, became quite ill and required to attend Glasgow Royal Infirmary (the GRI) for treatment. She went by ambulance with my mother as escort. It was an outpatient ambulance and would carry a number of patient’s at a time. The result was you could be on board for quite a while as it did it's rounds picking up and dropping off patients.
One afternoon Granny Yuill was returning home, with my mother, in the ambulance from a treatment. She was tired and drifting off to sleep. It had been a long day. The ambulance was full and she was seated near the back door. The smoked glass windows of the ambulance made it difficult to see out and get your bearings. But my mother, to her utter horror, knew exactly where the ambulance was going! The first patient off was destined for the Little Sisters! My gran was dozing. unaware of what was happening as the ambulance drove in the gate of the hospice and came to a halt outside the main entrance. My mother prayed that my gran wouldn’t wake up - but to no avail. As the back door of the ambulance opened and the step went down, my gran opened her eyes – to be confronted with a life size statue of the Virgin Mary staring straight at her! She let out a scream. uttered an oath and started fighting her way to the front of the ambulance. It took my mother, two ambulancemen and a couple of other escorts to restrain her and settle her down. If Granny Yuill could have driven I’m sure she would have hijacked the ambulance, crashed through the main gate, and driven off down Garngadhill with the blue lights on and klaxons blaring.

But she was a lovely wee woman.

BTW There is no offence intended to anyone of the catholic faith out there. I’m sure you guys have similar ‘Granny Yuills’ in your past.

Bob.

[Guest]

My Great Gran was just the same.She was horrified when her nephew married Angelena Mancini aCatholic Italian.Mum says Lena ,as she was called ,was a lovely woman and she liked her a lot.But Great Gran never got past her religion.Heaven only knows what she would have thought of Mum and Dad moving to the primarily Catholic province of Newfounland ,the consequence of which is 3 catholic in-laws and 9 out of 13 Catholic Grandchildren.The rest are United.The feelings go both ways though.I remember going to Mass on special occasions(we were always recieveing a blessing of one kind or another back then.)My teacher was afraid to let me in the church in case the blood of hell arose and swallowed me up.I laugh now but I was 8 at the time.I couldn't marry my husband in my church as I was told only a Catholic sacrament would be recognized.I also had to sign a paper promising my children would be raised Catholic.(Heaven knows what would happen if the knew my husband has converted to Protestant.) Until recently you had to have permission to be buried in the Catholic cemetery with your spouse if you had not converted.My Dad is buried in the Father Dan Megetigan Memorial Cemetary.He would have got a chuckle out of that.Father Dan peformed 2 of my sisters marriages and baptised 6 children.He also kept a Sacred Heart medal on the furnace at the rectory.Dad told him he had something even better and stuck his business card next to it.Dad had a strange sence of humor.
HK

[DavidWW]

...........much snipped.........The rest are United.....much more snipped..........

Heather

You'll need to explain "United" to most others apart from Canadians on the DG

Davie

[Guest]

Sorry Wullie,I meant United Church of Canada.
HK

[DavidWW]

Sorry Wullie,I meant United Church of Canada.
HK

Nae prob.....

7 of my students in Salt Lake City a couple of months ago were from north of the 49th parallel !!, so I had to read up on the Canadian situation, - great to find that an author with the archetypical Scottish surname of Baxter has written a top class guide on Canadian research!!

Davie

[Guest]

Just another one for the book.(How Scotland Discovered the World)
HK