Marion Binnie Paterson

Marion was always known as Mairn, as far as I heard, although she was always Granny to me.  If you wanted to see a representation of the perfect granny you couldn't do better than look at her.  She always had a warm, calm, homely disposition and liked nothing better than to have the youngsters in the kitchen making pancakes on the griddle.  She also made the best clootie dumpling ever.

She started life on Bridgend Farm at the foot of the road down from the mining village, a ploughman's daughter, and the nature of the employment in farming circles meant that she moved to Uphall and Abercorn before ending up back at Bridgend after her marriage.  Sadly, she lost her mother when she was only seven years old and two brothers in World War One and this couldn't fail to have an effect on a young girl.

After spending most of her married life in Bridgend Village she moved to Linlithgow to her little flat near the lochside, eventually moving to Clarendon Home in her later years.

We are lucky enough to have some of her handwriting as a girl, courtesy of a notebook lent to me by her daughter Rita (registered as Rachel) although the content is upsetting.  In it she mentions her brothers who were fighting in WW1.  George was also killed in November 1917.