The Letter Nana Carried with Her Until the Day She Died

"In 1898 grandmother, Eileen Mary Mulholland, was born in Roches Buildings on Cork city's north side. In 1913 she and her family left Cork and Ireland for a new life in Canada. I imagine that, like so many before and after, they left with dreams of prosperity and the opportunities that new country might offer. At the time she, her mother, and her older sister, recorded their occupations as 'domestic servant'. Two years after settling in Toronto, the Great War commenced, and at some time during the four years of the war, she found work in a munitions factory. No doubt that job was a 'step up' of sorts from domestic service: it offered full-time, regular employment, and provided her with training. Sadly, it also brought disability. Not long before the war's end, she was hit in the eye with a small piece of steel. The eye could not be saved, and was eventually removed. To compensate for her suffering, the Government of Ontario gave her a lifetime pension of $7 per month, approximately €5. Ten years ago I did a freedom of information search on her claim. I was provided with the medical records including reports that told me of the crippling headaches she suffered, and the financial hardship she and my grandfather endured. Somehow they had also managed to shield their children and grandchildren from knowing otherwise. Sadly, I also learned of the number of times over subsequent decades she would have to fight to keep that pension. She was successful on every occasion. Finally, in the 1960s, it turns out that she had lived too long: she learned in another letter that the promised life-time pension had run out. I believe that Nana's letter is a national treasure as it is symbolic of the struggles of so many who have left Ireland over the centuries. The fact that she carried it with her until her death in 1974 tells me of the need she had, even after it had run out, to establish both her identity and her entitlement to that small pension through times of financial struggle."