On Monday the first of November 2004, we went to the Silver Threads project in Ballybeen, where we met May. This is her story :

May is seventy six years old and comes from quite a large close knit family; she has 5 brothers, one sister and 3 granddaughters and grew up in North Belfast. May's sister moved to Vancouver after marrying a Belfast man, she spoke of how they didn’t have many holidays when they were young, but now enjoys going to visit her and their two children in Canada.

When the were children they would go to places like Bangor and Newcastle, she spoke fondly of a holiday to Dublin with her family, but laughed as she told me they had to go home early because her mother missed her own bed.

When she was younger, May enjoyed going to dances in Belfast's Ann Street, excitedly she told me about dancing with a gold medal champion in The Tower Ballroom, although May described herself as shy when she was younger, she spoke of how she would go to The Orpheus and Floral Hall with the lads from the Boys Brigade.

Dancing was the main social event and she would go three times a week. I asked May if she was a member of the Girls Brigade and she told that she wasn’t but used to attend the Girls Friendly Society, it was a Christian organisation and she said religion was an important part of her childhood.

It was when she got married that May developed an interest in music, she told me how she loved dancing around the house to the Bay City Rollers, the Bee Gees and strangely Michael Bolton! May also has a love for Saturday Night Fever, and has watched it more than 10 times.

During her school days, May enjoyed playing dominoes and finished school at 12pm. She went to a school where corporal punishment was used; she told us how if you got caned at school that you didn’t tell your parents because they would have caned you as well.

May enjoyed playing rounders when she was younger and says it was very popular, when she left school she became a newspaper print apprentice, she enjoyed it but also said it was hard work.

During the war the people of Northern Ireland relied on the support of their families and neighbours like never before. When May’s mother went to do the family’s shopping, her best friend’s mother looked after her. She recalls with fondness how on one occasion she had to get water from an outside toilet to make a cup tea because she wasn’t allowed into the house.

As part of the Silver Threads project, May and her friends knit clothing for children of Chernobyl and also send out gifts to people in hospitals and hospices.

May really enjoys going to the project as it gives her the opportunity to socialise with other people, where every Monday morning they get their breakfast and lunch. Her hobbies include knitting and gardening and visiting her grandchildren.

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