Theresa Josephine Crumlish was my mother's aunt.

She was the daughter of John and Anne Crumlish, and was born in Moville, Co. Donegal about 1890.

She had eight brothers and sisters: Mary Anne (my grandmother), Denis, Margaret, Kathleen, Frances, Nora, Evelyn and Charlie.

TJ (as she liked to be called) trained as a nurse in a maternity hospital in Dublin. In World War 1 she was employed nursing wounded Russian soldiers, and picked up a smattering of the language.

She returned to ireland, and lived with her sister, Maggie, in Wellington Bridge, Wexford. TJ emigrated to America in 1920 to work in a hospital in The Bahamas. Eventually, she became a Matron, and met and married Kenneth W Harding (of United Fruits). He was the nephew of President Harding of the United States of America. They had no children.

They travelled extensively throughout Central America, particularly Panama and Costa Rica, with her husband's job. When she came to Ireland to see her relations, she travelled by banana boat!.

She eventually moved to Clearwater, Florida, but after the death of her husband, TJ returned to Derry in 1981, to live with her niece, Bernadette.

She was moved to the Nazareth House in Derry, complaining, at the age of 91,
" .. this place is fulla ol' people .. "
before going to live with her nephew, John Crumlish, in Moville, where she died in 1982.

She is buried with her husband in Clearwater, Florida, USA.

 

"TJ" Harding