The Galway resident who was believed to be the oldest person in Ireland has died this week just 81 days after celebrating her 109th birthday.
Phyllis Furness died in Galway this week after celebrating her 109th birthday on 23 May at Moycullen Nursing Home with her granddaughter Jackie Ord, who had travelled from Melbourne in Australia.
Ms Furness had expressed a wish at the time to reach her 110th birthday and become a supercentenarian. Born Phyllis Olwyn Ryder in Nottinghamshire in England, she moved with her husband John to the Glann Road outside Oughterard in 1981 as a retirement project. Her husband was keen on angling and wanted to be near Lough Corrib.
After he died in 1984, Ms Furness moved to a house closer to Oughterard village and continued to live there until last year when she moved to Moycullen Nursing Home.
She became an active member in the local community, particularly in Kilcummin Church, when she arrived in Galway more than 40 years ago.
The couple, who had married in 1940, had one son, Michael, who was born in 1942 and died in 2012.
Framed greeting cards from the late Queen Elizabeth and current King and Queen, Charles and Camilla were on display in her room in the nursing home while she also received commemorative coins from President Michael D Higgins every year since she turned 100.
Born Phyllis Olwyn Ryder in Newark, Northampton, in 1915, she had one brother, two sisters, and three step-sisters. Starting school at the age of five, she finished at 14, the normal age to finish schooling at that time.
Phyl was no stranger to the world of work from the time she was a child at school. She moved to live with her step-sisters after she left school, and through them she found employment. One day, her then boss asked her if she could cook. She said: “Yes, but what for?”
It turned out that he had 150 dignitaries expected for a dinner the next evening and the chef had walked out. Having elicited her boss’s promise to help her, she agreed. They drew up a menu and the dinner event went ahead without a hitch. Phyl was never one to refuse a challenge.
To meet Phyl, you would take it that she had had a trouble free, happy, life, yet there were many difficulties to overcome. Phyl left these gently in the past, where, as she says, they belong. They moved house many times, which must have been disruptive for friendships. When Phyl mentioned any negative times, it was simply in a factual way, free from self-pity or bitterness. It seems she simply expected herself to pick herself up and get on with it.
And she most certainly did. She was involved in war work in munitions in Bournemouth during World War II, and married John Furness in 1940.
In 1981 Phyl’s husband John, who already loved Ireland, bought a house in Glann when he was over on a fishing holiday. Phyl claims that her life really took off when she came to live here in Ireland. It was now that she dropped Olwyn from her signature, as much as she liked the feeling of being adopted by Ireland, she found she was being addressed as ‘Mrs O’Furness’.
She made many friends through Kilcummin Church of Ireland. She and Barbara Edwards teamed up with Mary Rose Glynn, going to concerts and music hall nights organised by the John Player group. Tops of the Town competitions were held throughout the country and she, Barbara, and Mary Rose must certainly have been a ‘class act’, taking part in many competitions and social evenings. Phyl was especially gifted in recitations. Anyone who heard her recite ‘Albert and the Lion’ will not be surprised that she won an impressive Oscar for this in one of the John Player competitions.
Her husband, John, died in 1984, and she moved to her home by the waterfall in Oughterard in 1985. When she was not engaged in her John Player escapades, she set about cultivating her garden, making it beautiful for herself and her friends, and especially the birds. Phyl was a keen observer and knew all the foibles and characters of all the regular bird visitors to her garden.
In 2012 came the immense loss of her gifted only son, Michael, after a long fight with cancer. Accepting that loss was probably the hardest thing in her life, to have to face, again, Phyl’s indomitable spirit and her strong faith carried her. The Nativity groups went on being produced, the garden was tended to, and the birds fed, as usual.
At the age of 104, Phyllis Furness launched a search for her younger sister, Freda, whom she had not seen in 90 years. She was upset to discover that Freda had died in 2013. She blamed disputes within her family for being previously unable to meet with her sister; the last time she had seen her family was when she was 15 years old, meaning Freda was an infant at the time.
Ms Ord said this week that her grandmother loved wearing big hats and said people are being asked to wear them to the funeral.
“She had a great love of hats. She would always come to church with a different hat. And, people admired her for that. You know that it was probably a tradition that doesn’t happen so much these days.”
Ms Ord said that if people wear hats to the funeral it “would be a lovely tribute for everybody to find a hat and come along and celebrate.”
