St. Patrick's Day homage: love, wit and a memorable mum trip to Ireland

Dublin's famous Temple Bar was a pub stop on a memorable tour of Ireland with Cookie's late mother, Ellen, who played piano and fiddle there and sang a medley of Irish tunes with the band on St. Patrick's Day. The trip inspired a family memorial in Montana.

TAKE THE TRIP, MAKE  THE MEMORY: IRISH 'AYES' ALL AROUND

'Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal.'

on a headstone found in a Dublin churchyard

           STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS

           PHOTOS By BRUCE KELLER &cm

"The Carpe Diem Kids"

MY MOTHER WAS determined to visit Ireland and play piano in an Irish pub.

I'm proud to say I helped make that happen before she passed in 2008. The trip made her happy -- and while I'll always miss my flamboyant, talented mum, I have memories aplenty.  

St. Patrick's Day homage: as we pulled into Cork's city harbor, for several days in the Emerald Isle, mum's fingers were ready.  Her happy tears shown in the morning sun as we shared her first look at the home of half her ancestors.  Mum was as full of emotion as her folks were full of blarney. (The Norwegian side, her father's, were sailors and fishermen with their own droll wit.) 

Cookie's late sister Robbie helped choreograph several memorable European trips with mum Ellen, including the Ireland odyssey.

“I’m home, I feel it,” mum cried, lifting her hands heavenward. “These are my people.”

Then she wept.  My sister Robbie and I smiled at one another, blinking back our own tears.  We had a group hug, all of us crying. We're a crying family - so it wasn't surprising.  We cry when we're happy; we cry when we're sad.  Some of us cry for no reason at all on St. Patrick's Day

Joy and sorrow, like the comic and tragic masks, are merely different takes on the heart's emotion. The Irish know that better than most.

Cookie and her mum on the town in Dublin. Besides playing piano and fiddle at pubs, they looked for family history, visited graveyards, hiked coastal roads, reveled in all things Irish

SO ON St. Patrick's Day, we celebrate my mother -- and one of her favorite wits:  Oscar Wilde.  He said:

• "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal is absolutely fatal."

• "I can resist everything except temptation."

• "Be yourself.  Everyone else is taken."

Cookie and Ellen had many happy times together, always with music, often with dogs.

St. Patrick's Day delights, history

• "If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life."

• "The truth is rarely pure and never simple."

• And from "The Importance of Being Earnest" beloved by my mother, who played Lady Bracknell in a Portland, Oregon, production: "To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."

Mum also loved this quote from playwright Sean O'Casey:

"Money does not make you happy but it quiets the nerves."  

Dublin born Oscar Wilde was a favorite wit, playwright of Cookie's mother, the late Ellen B. Cosgriffe. In her long career as an musician and occasional actor, she played Lady Bracknell in "The Importance of Being Earnest."

I'D BEEN TO Ireland a half-dozen times before, but seeing it through my mother’s eyes was like seeing it anew.  From the rugged coastlines to misty meadows and stone fences, I felt connected to the country in a way I had never felt before.  The Blarney Stone took on new meaning.  The potato famine felt real.  When mum told sis and me the story of  her great grandmother’s departure, we looked the Emerald Isle in the eye. At our pub stops St. Patrick's Day, mum was greeted like a favorite auntie. When the people discovered she was musical, we were center stage at the piano and fiddle and couldn't buy a beverage. 

Finding gravestones and tracing ancestors was part of the fun for the family on the Ireland trip.

Our St. Patrick's Day homage continued as we visited several graveyards looking for family names of Pittendrigh, Cosgriffe, Wilson. We found all, and relished the meanings and histories -- Cosgriff means "victorious." The Pittendrighs migrated to Ireland from Aberdeen in northeastern Scotland -- interesting in light of the fact that our niece, Amarylla, married a Scotsman, Steve Ganner. We learned that Wilson is a common Irish name -- more common even than the ubiquitous Smith. (Mum sniffed at that. "Nothing common about my people.")

The cliffs, coastal views and castle ruins of Ireland captured the heart of Cookie's late mother, Ellen.

WE'D PUT DOWN anchor in the same place where my great, great-grandmother, Molly Wilson, left her family for America before the last Century’s turn.  She’d taken the train to Cobn (pronounced Cove) from Cork, on a tiny track which we found.  More memories. Memories of a lovely trip. And so much love. 

My 20 days in Europe with my mother and youngest sister rank high on my list of world adventures.  Not because of the exotic nature of  the ports, all of which I’d visited, but because of the unique bond we shared. Now, particularly with both mum and Robbie gone, I cherish the memories. I wouldn't trade this trip for all the tea in Ireland. And I created a memorial in Montana inspired by our graveyard and churchyard wanderings in Ireland.

Back in Montana, Christene "Cookie" Meyers created a family memorial inspired by Ireland research.

LIFE IS shaped by defining moments. Often we realize their importance only in looking back. I'm grateful I helped mum follow her dreams, hold true to her vision, find a way to make that trip happen.  Call it my own "importance of being earnest."  

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NEXT UP:  as of March 15, 2018

A fabulous San Diego production of Stephen Sondheim's returns to the stage.

"A Little Night Music" has our veteran theater reviewer waxing rhapsodic. Find out what sets this extraordinary production apart as Cookie describes the talent, staging and magic unfolding at Cygnet Theatre in San Diego's Old Town.

Since reveling in the original Broadway production in 1973. Cookie has become a "Night Music" junkie, even acting as music director and pianist in her own production.  Remember to explore, learn and live and catch us weekly when we post a fresh take on theater, travel, nature, family and the arts.