18 May 2020
 
 
My fondest memories of my great aunt Molly are at my granny’s apartment for Sunday roast. Now, Sunday roasts at my granny’s were always a special occasion. But if auntie Molly was there, they were an event and everyone knew it. One need only look at the pictures of these evenings. Smiles were bigger. Handshakes and hugs tighter and longer. Laughter louder. Everything just a bit more convivial. Auntie Molly had that effect on people. And so, really, my fondest memories are of the way she made others around her feel—interesting, welcome, relaxed. My granny had this ability in abundance too. Making others feel important and loved is an art. In this regard, individually, my granny and aunt Molly were both masterful artists. Together, they were a force. This artistry was always on full display at our Sunday roasts. It’s this that I’ll miss most about her. About them. And it’s what we should all hope to pass on.
 
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26th May 2020 marked the quiet, peaceful, and dignified – yet in many ways exceptionally difficult – passing of our Dear (Great) Aunt, Molly Clegg. For us, her great nephews across the pond, Auntie Molly was more than merely the last surviving member of her generation on either side of our family. As we had the luxury of seeing her regularly during her yearly visits to Canada when we were younger, Auntie Molly, moreover, in many ways came to represented the last faint, flickering traces of her younger sister, our dearly departed Grandmother Margaret (Peggy) Smith (2008). Molly and Peggy’s exceptional bond was forged during their infamous adventures together as young women coming of age during WWII in Ipswich, before Peggy and her husband Richard emigrated to Canada at the end of the war. Following Molly’s loss of her husband Tim in 1979, and Peggy’s loss of Richard in 1985, however, the two sisters rekindled their inseparable youthful bond. Over the last 40 years, therefore, Molly and Peggy began spending significant more time together, traveling extensively. Not unlike the endless stories of their “salad days” as young, eligible woman who received no small amount of attention from the troops at the nearby US air force base, Molly and Peggy developed countless admirers later in life, from the bridge tables of Kitchener-Waterloo, to the halls of Molly’s many social clubs in Ipswich and London, to the countless international cruises they undertook together. While she was an accomplished  traveler who visited virtually every part of the world, Molly was an equally passionate host who went out of her way to accommodate visiting friends and family. As militantly insistent on the cultural institution of ‘happy hour’ as her sister, Molly’s fridge was – without fail – stocked with her guests’ tipple of choice, and the meals she prepared for them were impeccable (see the scanned, copy of her hand-written Pheasant Pie recipe that follows). In virtually every respect, Molly and her sister (our Grandmother) Peggy enjoyed an incredibly close and unbelievably caring relationship – a model that my brother and I will work to emulate until the end of our days. The very last member of her generation, Molly’s warmth, worldliness, and wisdom has and will continue to be carried forward by everyone whose lives she has touched.
 
 
 
Kevin and Christopher