Margaret Erskine

Margaret, or Mags as most people knew her was born in Scotland on the 7th March 1951. Beautiful daughter of Victor and Catherine Gillespie..

Growing up in Scotland made her childhood interesting, she would often tell stories of days playing up on the hills, rolling boiled eggs down them at Easter after spending hours painting them.

She always loved the outdoors and as she grew up that interest grew even more when she was out walking with her dad. Learning all about the different birds, flowers and nature.

Spending the first half of her life in Scotland she made some amazing friends, one of which was to last a lifetime, well over 40 years to be precise. Catherine Martin, the lady over the road whose son Gary started to play with Tommy when they were just 7 years old, those boys playing brought them together over the months, Cathy supporting her as she was pregnant at the time with her second child.

When mags called Cathy on the 26th March 1979 to say she had the worst heartburn, Cathy was right over to see what was going on… it was at that point Cathy told her that her heartburn was about to take feet and she was going onto labour.

That’s the day Andrew was born, and they have both been best friends ever since.

Despite the distance when mags moved down here to Wombwell that friendship never weakened and they were always visiting each other, going on holidays together and in general getting up-to no good most of the time, right up to pole dancing on the high street!

At the age of 15 she finished school and was straight into work at the paper mill, that was the start of her working life and she was never without a job for most of it.

Mags had many friends, Julie & John lived just down the street, and in their youth they all got up to all sorts.. to the point she was jokingly accused of having an affair with John because she was down there with him everyday while Julie was at work… what people didn’t know was that they were both on the computer playing games trying to beat each others high scores… there was many a night had with them playing cards but its wasn’t normal cards.. ohh no.. they didn’t play for money… they played for slaps with the fish turner!

Mags spent many a summers day in the garden, talking to Kath & Max next door.. putting the world to rights.

She often looked forward to getting her fresh veg off Max so she could make some vegetable soup, and as time went on she would go round and visit almost every day for a coffee and a bun… oh and a play with the dogs… that was the real reason we’re sure.

After all those years of hard work, it started to take atoll on her back and as a result she had to slow down, this didn’t stop her all that much though.

After meeting Fr Davies from the Wombwell parish mags became more active in the church and the local community. Over the years she made many trips to Lourdes with the church, helping the disabled and less fortunate. Alongside most of the family they started a lunch club for the elderly that ran for many years, she loved being part of something special and being able to give something back.

As the years passed, she was blessed with an amazing grandson, Brendan. In granny’s own words he was definitely “Golden Boy” taking every opportunity she could mags played a huge part in Brendan’s life and his upbringing.

There were many fun filled family holidays in Florida, and even these came with their own antics, By this time mags was using a wheelchair for longer days out and this often became the tool that was used for fooling around…Brendan dumping her in the “Splash” zone next to the water ride knowing she could not escape… while everyone watched her get soaked… but despite that she still came out laughing…

Taking her brakes off at the top of the hill in Hemsworth water park and letting the wheelchair run down to the bottom where it then tipped up and we found her laying the bushes… laughing her head off…she always seen the fun side of things even if it was at her expense.. she didn’t care as long as it made people smile.

As he grew up Brendan became interested in Motorcross, which meant mags was now gonna be a motorcross granny… for 11 years she was there with him… painting campervans, making breakfast when they were away at the weekends… standing at the side of the track screaming and shouting for her little lad… she was a super proud granny to the point her and Andrew often argued about what was going to happen to all the trophy’s she has on display… she always won the argument and the trophies stayed…

Brendan and “Granny” had a lot more time together than your average family when Brendan decided at 16 he wanted to live with her, see her every day and drive her around the bend, that said being in the same house for all those years gave them both the opportunity to make amazing memories together. “Granny” as she was now known by at this point by most of the younger population in Barnsley …

..this gave her that warm feeling of despite getting older she was still playing a part in his life as he grew up and in the life’s of his friends who visited and sat with her talking while Brendan was taking an age to get ready to go out.

Then Brendan met Chloe, who was always at the house in the beginning, to the point mags came out with the question “Why don’t you just move in, ya always here anyway” so she did and that was the start of another great time for mags having another woman in the house to help her fight the battles with the boys… not that there were many anyway she always got what she wanted… she often said it was nice to have another woman in the house, there were many late night conversations about “Woman’s” things that the boys just didn’t understand.

As her back got worse, she ended up in the wheelchair fulltime when she was out and about, or she would use her mobility scooter.

This again came with its challenges, going to the carboot on a Sunday with Andrew & Paul, too busy looking at the stuff on the stalls and smashed the scooter into 2 people and another stall next door…

..or the day in the pound shop with it when she hit the railing shocked herself, pulled on the throttle and took out the full row and tipped over the scooter before it actually stopped.

It was always entertaining when you were out and about.

Time passed by and she had the opportunity to see her family grow up, to see them all settled, and building their life’s together.

This was all she ever wanted, to see her family happy. Today we’re not so happy because we had to say goodbye to the glue that held everything together for all those years, but we are pleased she’s no longer in any pain, back with her dad, (she was always a daddy’s girl.) resting and watching over all of us.