User talk:Buttons1923!

Margaret Joan Callan
Margaret Joan Shackleton (October 19,1923-August 27, 2019) was born in Harrogate, Yorkshire. She attended Doncaster Grammar Schoolin Doncaster Yorkshire. Her brother Mitchell, three years her senior, also attended the school. After finding an injured man on the street when Margaret was just ten years old, she decided she wanted to be a nurse. She studied general, fever and midwifery nursing. During WW II, she nursed injured soldiers in London and never spoke of the trauma of those years. In 1948, she met Colum Callan,also known as Colm Callan who was an international rugby player from Ireland, at a dance after a rugby match. Colum was not playing at the match as he was on leave. They spent the week after they met together before Colum returned to Ireland. In 1950, they got married in York with only her parents and some strangers as witnesses. They honeymooned in Rome. Margaret was a sister on a ward in a hospital in Dublin prior to their marriage. They had six children, David (1950) Frank (1952) Claire (1953) Paul (1957) Ana (1959) and Richard (1967). She was on the board of the school Richard attended. Margaret devoted her life to caring for her family. She was an excellent and prodigious cook and created over one hundred dishes, made jams and marmalade, baked breads, muffins, scones and a wide variety of cakes. She enjoyed nature and travel. In 1976, she went to Cape Town with her youngest son, Richard, to visit her brother Mitchell and his family. They went on safari in Kruger National Park. Margaret travelled on many occasions to Spain with Richard and to the United States to visit her daughters, Claire in CT and Ana in OR, and a son in Madison, WI. Margaret loved to walk, swim and bicycle. In her later years, she enjoyed a passion for reading and devoured books. Fiction gave her immense pleasure when her physical limitations hindered a more active way of life. For 94 years, she enjoyed relative good health. In July 2018, she was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which may have been caused by the Chanel No. 5 talcum powder she used every day of her life. Her last year was extremely difficult but she endured treatments and made a resolve to accept the inevitable with grace, courage and thanksgiving for a long life well lived.