A Christmas message from beyond the grave?

A bereavement... gathering up the deceased personal belongings... buying raffle tickets with loose change found in the deceased's pockets.... missing the announcement you'd won the car....leaving a wrong number.... but somehow, this story does have a happy twist... perhaps a little influence from beyond the grave?

“The winner of the Marymount car raffle is the Walsh and Birchall family from Co Wicklow c/o Margaret Birchall” read a post on Marymount University Hospice FB page.

Despite this being a Cork based hospice, the winning names caught my attention as I happen to know several members of the Walsh and Birchall families from Dunlavin.

Margaret Birchall nee Walsh is well known to the communities located along the Kildare/West Wicklow border as she was Senior Librarian at Blessington Library for years.

Margaret’s brother Frank (above) passed away in Marymount  during the past summer; his death and that of his mam Eileen the previous year hit the family hard. A native of Dunlavin, Frank had lived in Cork for the past 35 years.

After Frank’s sad passing, Margaret and family members went into his room to pack away his belongings at Marymount University Hospice.

“They came across some loose change of Frank's and decided in his honour, to buy some car raffle tickets at the hospice reception. Naturally distracted on the day that was in it, they wrote scant address details and an old phone number” reported Marymount University Hospice.

Margaret stated they were so grateful to the Cork based hospice for the tender care given to Frank during his end of life term, that the family decided to go back to Marymount to join their 'Light up a Life' ceremony in remembrance of departed loved ones.

“We wanted to sponsor some lights on the tree to help fundraise for the hospice. Their care and support for our Frank and for the family will be forever appreciated. Palliative care is vital and the ultimate act of loving care” added Margaret.

Such were the crowds and the level of noise at the ceremony, the family missed the announcement about the car winner.

“After the event the fundraising team rang the number on the ticket but the number was out of service. They resolved they would sort it out the next day – and in any event if they couldn’t get in touch, a second ticket had been selected for this specific reason” stated a member of Marymount University Hospice.

“Later that night, Head of Fundraising Paula McGovern came across some beautiful images of the day on Instagram and got in touch with the user to ask if she could use them.

“As she was scrolling through, Paula noticed the profile user was a Birchall from Co Wicklow. Could this be? A few PMs later, identity checks made and a phonecall was made to the Birchall family en route home to Wicklow from Cork to let them know that they had won the car! A huge cheer went up just off the N8”.

“That phone call in the car was just brilliant,” explains Margaret. “We were in and out of Marymount so often in the summer and we bought so many tickets. We are so delighted though that the winning ticket was bought by Frank’s loose change. We found loads in his pockets - the fact that we bought the tickets with his money and all the near-misses with numbers and social media – Frank would have loved all the craic and it really felt he was with us in the moment” said Margaret

Perhaps this was Frank's way of saying “Thanks guys, you looked after me the finest, I'll miss the craic and I'll miss you all – here's a little farewell gift to raise a smile”.

A Christmas message from beyond the grave......