The passing of Ena Howes

Ena was always smiling.

She was always warm and welcoming to everybody who came to her home.

It was probably that smile that did it for her husband-to-be Bob when they first met. She had gone to work in London, he was on short leave from his wartime soldiering activities. They married and lived initially in England.

When they came to Ireland in the very early fifties, and set up home in Glasnevin in Dublin, it was a whole new beginning for their young family. A house is a house anywhere, but the house in Hampstead Park became so much more. It was a true home, because she was always there, to her family, to her many friends. She loved people, and she loved for them to be in her house.

In her last years, that love was returned in the care and concern of her loving husband, and her children Vivienne and Greg, and her sister and her friends.

She was also cared for with love and great attention by the staff at Chapel View in St Mary's Hospital, and by those around her in similar circumstances.

This week we bade farewell to somebody who was enormously generous in spirit and of herself, and who had an amazing capacity to love.

Ena, all your succeeding generations will reflect your love for all of them.

And they will always reflect the smiling person which is how we all remember you. BB