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Margo remembered at Mad Hatter’s Tea Party


THE mid-summer sunshine beating down on Tullabrack West, just off the Cooraclare-Kilrush Road, partly concealed the sense of loss pervasive in the Wilson-Pierce household. The throng of people, young and old, who had navigated the narrow boreen leading to the family home indicated that all was well. However, Mark Wilson-Pierce would have infinitely preferred if the anniversary gathering at Rathlir Farm had not been taking place at all. Almost 12 months ago, Mark lost his wife Margo (née Wilson) to cancer, leaving him widowed and seven-year-old Síofra and five-year-old Phoebe without their mother.
“Monday (June 10) would have been the 10th wedding anniversary for myself and Margo. She passed away last July, having struggled hard to fight against ovarian cancer. It was found very late and there was unfortunately no hope,” Mark told The Clare Champion on Saturday, momentarily removed from the teeming crowd celebrating Margo’s life and raising money for the West Clare Cancer Centre in Kilkee.
Margo, who was a make-up artist in the film industry, was cremated in her native Dublin, following her passing last July. Just as the grieving family left Tullabrack West almost a year ago, Mark experienced a moment that will resonate with him forever.
“The children from Shragh National School, where my eldest daughter goes, gave us a guard of honour at the bottom of the drive as we drove off to Dublin for the cremation. I was absolutely blown away by that and I didn’t really know what to do by way of saying ‘thank you’. So, with the year’s anniversary coming up in about a month’s time, along with what would have been our wedding anniversary, I wanted to say ‘thank you’ to the kids. I thought the best way was to have a party. That’s the basis for the tea party that is now on in the courtyard,” Mark, who grew up in Somerset, explained.
Along with his young daughters, Mark is doing his best to keep going without his wife and their mother at this side.
“She was taken away from me. It is very hard and it’s going to be increasingly hard as time gets closer to the year’s anniversary. So this is why I wanted to do this today. I wanted to make it upbeat and a fun occasion because I don’t really want anyone around when it’s a year [anniversary]. I find as the weeks close in on the anniversary date, I’m finding it hard.
“It’s been hard anyway. You’re left on your own with two children, which is difficult to begin with. I changed my whole life around. I was doing other bits and pieces, including business consulting and marketing. I had a contract in Dublin, which I gave up to come back and look after Margo and the kids,” he said.
Mark feels particularly for his youngest daughter, Phoebe.
“We have hugs and tears virtually every day. My youngest girl was only two when her mum got ill and was four when her mum passed on. She only turned five back in February, so it has been a hard life for her.
“It knocked us backwards and, of course, it’s made a complete hole in the centre of the family. I suppose in time we’ll get over it and recover but this year will be a special time. The community around here is amazing. I’ve had so much support from them in very quiet and unspoken ways. If I’ve asked for anything, it has always been there. I know that if I pick up the phone and talk to a neighbour, they would be here in a sixpence. I couldn’t have asked for better support,” he reflected.
The couple married in Greece and moved to West Clare about nine years ago. They were caught on the hop momentarily while marrying in Southern Europe and finished up with a double barrelled surname.
“When you get married in Greece, you have to say what the surname of the children is going to be. We hadn’t had that discussion, so we decided not to decide. We gave ourselves the name Wilson-Pierce, which was a complete cop out and a perfect solution,” he laughed.
They moved to West Clare to raise their family.
“I was born in London but I spent the first 20 years of my life in Somerset. So I’m a country boy. Coming here was something we decided to do to try and give the children the life I had as a child. When I was in Somerset growing up in the 1960s, I could walk out in the morning and my mother wouldn’t care where I was until I got home at dusk. It was safe and the only problem I could have was falling over a ditch. That’s the childhood we wanted for our kids,” Mark revealed.
“When we bought this place in 2004, we could have bought a one-bedroom flat in Dublin for the same price as you would pay for a 30-acre farm. We were self-sufficient. That was the objective. We’ve been selling in farmers’ markets, growing potatoes and a variety of different things but that all stopped when my wife fell ill,” he noted sadly.
Despite the grief and upheaval brought about by Margo’s untimely passing, Mark never countenanced leaving West Clare.
“It’s the only life my daughters know. We have no need to leave and no intention of taking them away from the life that they know. What would I do that for?” he queried.
At Saturday’s Mad Hatter’s Tea Party and the Yardarm barbecue later that evening, Mark accepted donations for the West Clare Cancer Centre in Kilkee. He will never forget the help afforded to his family when Margo was receiving cancer treatment.
“I don’t think we could have managed at the time without the support we got from the West Clare Mini-Marathon Committee. They gave us money towards travelling expenses at a time when we were finding it very hard to make ends meet. I had to give up work, Margo was convalescing, the kids had to go to school and there was no one else. Willie and Mary McGrath gave Margo and myself a lot of support when we had to do a lot of travelling. I had to do a survey for Milford House, where my wife was in the hospice for the last few months. You had to recall all the trips you made and I think we must have been on the road virtually every day,” he recalled.
“In time I’d like to do something to support Milford but right now, I’d like to raise money for the West Clare Mini-Marathon. The people here also want to do that. They’re here to give me support,” he added.
As the early evening closed in, Mark took a moment to eye his surroundings. The birdsong was in full flow, the temperatures unusually sky high, while the neighbouring fields and dividing ditches were green and laden with plentiful foliage.
“I couldn’t imagine a better place to live. West Clare is one of the nicest places in the world,” Mark said softly, drinking in the expanse of a summer’s evening in Tullabrack West.

 

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