Johanna ‘JOAN’ McCormack

“Her life a beautiful memory. Her absence a silent grief”

 

Sadly, on the 8th March, in the care of Leighton Hospital,  Joan aged 83 years.

The beloved wife of the late Thomas, loving mum of Martin and his wife Sam, Michael and his wife Tracey, a devoted nana of Joseph, Matthew,  Poppy,  Felix, Finley, Archie and Frankie. Also a dearest sister and good friend to many. Joan will be sadly missed and remembered with affection.

Joan’s funeral will take place on  Friday 23rd March in St Mary of the Immaculate Conception RC Church, Crewe at 12:15pm  followed by burial in Crewe Cemetery.

Donations in Joan’s memory will be gratefully received for Ward 2 of Leighton Hospital.

For any further information regarding the funeral, please don’t hesitate to contact our funeral home.

 

Joan was born in 1934 in County Limerick, Ireland and was part of a large family of brothers and sisters.  As is normal with larger families, she looked after her younger siblings and this caring attitude was continued even when she left the family home.
Early in life, she left Ireland to work in America before returning to work in Dublin.  She always remembered her younger siblings and sent money from her earnings home to help look after them.  It was in Dublin that she met Thomas and they moved to Whitchurch in England, where Thomas worked as a Steward in a working mens club and Joan worked alongside him. They had two children together, Martin and Michael and she always said that she would have liked to have had more.

Joan always had a very caring outlook on life and this led to her working as a home help within Social Services, visiting the elderly in their homes to help them with cleaning, cooking or shopping before she eventually became a permanent warden in a sheltered accommodation complex.

Joan was always a very active woman with always another project to complete, be it decorating the home (she was a dab hand at wallpapering), sewing and altering curtains or just wanting to change this or that, Joan was always busy.
She enjoyed knitting and in her retirement she was a ferocious knitter, producing numerous jumpers and other items for her young grandchildren of which she had seven.  She was also a regular at various clubs and groups such as parchment, which she really enjoyed.  She also attended a Computers for Beginners group for a while although this was one venture that was met with less success than normal for Joan as many frustrated conversations about mice, icons, windows, etc meant that this was maybe one technological advance too far.

Deaf in one ear from an early age, Joan always struggled with hearing but didn’t let this hold her back, although her neighbours could probably tell what she was watching on TV at any time of the day or night! She was also an avid reader and loved to read about life in Ireland from a range of different authors.  Fully active and independent till the very end, Joan left behind a couple of knitting and parchment projects that will now not be finished.  At 83 years of age, Joan lived a full and busy life caring for others. Now God has called her home to finally rest, we can celebrate her life and give thanks for her help, support, love and humour.

Joan leaves behind her two sons and their wives (Martin and Sam, Michael and Tracey) and her seven grandchildren, Joseph, Matthew, Poppy, Felix, Finley, Archie and Frankie who will all miss her dearly.

Once again, thank you to you all for coming to honour Joan and her passing today – I know she would be grateful and maybe a bit embarrassed by the attention – but I also know she would be touched by how much you clearly cared and thought of her.

I have heard of a land
On the faraway strand
This a beautiful home of the soul
Built by Jesus on high
There we never shall die
This the land where we’ll never grow old

Never grow old, never grow old
In the land where we’ll never grow old
Never grow old, never grow old
In the land where we’ll never grow old