Mary Elizabeth Gallagher

Mary was born in Irvinestown, Northern Ireland, the second child of Robert and Emma Little.

She fell in love with Tom (Tony) and they left Ireland for England in 1955, where they were married with a small ceremony on December 10th. Their first home was in a trailer park in Winkfield and soon after, their son William Francis was born in September of 1956. In 1960 they moved to Woodley (near Reading) and in early 1962, their second son Maurice Anthony was born.

During this period, they also housed brothers, Bert and Willie, young men who were getting established in a business in Reading. Mary worked collecting for the British Football “Pools” as well as part-time work at the local hospital.

The family immigrated to Freeport, Grand Bahama Island at the end of 1970. This was a very busy year with moves into two houses, first on Marley Drive and then on Beaconsfield Avenue. In both cases, their next door neighbours, the Masons and Leutchfords respectively, became life-long friends with all three families later ending up in the Toronto area.

During the late summer of 1971, the family left the Bahamas landing in Florida, with a plan to stay with an Uncle (Gordon) in New York, and inquire into a job and residence in Toronto.

In the fall of 1971, the family moved to Scarborough, (Danforth Ave) where by an amazing coincidence they found they were next door to Carole and Jim Leutchford again. Shortly after settling in, they purchased the family home on Cedarview Drive in 1971.

During her working career, Mary had a number of administrative jobs in Toronto, including working for Scotiabank (Chargex) and the Bank of Montreal.

She became a grandmother in 1991 (Sean) and another grandson followed in 1993 (Brendan).

Mary was a very gentle, kind person, but under that quiet shy exterior there was a sense of adventure and a mischievous sense of humour – well known to anyone close to her.

Mary and Tom loved to travel. One of the highlights was a year in Adelaide, Australia from which they did some exploring of the continent and returned to in later years for another extended visit. They also met and travelled with their long-time friends Gloria and Doug Mason there. They spent time in Hawaii, Fuji, New Zealand and in their retirement years they liked to spend their winters at New Smyrna Beach in Florida. They have many friends from across North America from their annual “snowbird” trips.

Another favoured spot was the Monterey peninsula in California, where their son Bill resides.

Other hobbies included dancing. Mary and Tom loved to dance together all through their lives. In Canada, this eventually became square and round dancing through which they had a large circle of friends. They shared many special memories, including some group travel and many lively July “St Patrick’s Day” pool parties.

Mary enjoyed her garden and the property at Cedarview Drive was a picturesque place for gatherings of friends, as well as a regular landing spot for many visitors from England and Ireland.

She was a very proud mother and grandmother. Her calming influence and sense of fairness was a major source of strength, and a role model, for both sons and grandsons.

In her sixties Mary was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. She continued daily walks and golf games for many more years until her illness forced her to stop. She entered the Tony Stacey Centre for Veterans Care in the fall of 2010. Special thanks to the staff at the centre for their tender loving care and friendship toward her and their daily visitor, devoted husband Tom.

Mary is pre-deceased by her brother George and survived by siblings Bert, Hakie, Martha, Willie and Emma.

In lieu of flowers, we encourage donations to the Centre in Mary’s memory. www.tonystaceycentre.ca