LAND OF HARDSHIP AND LOVE

Whilst living in New Zealand as a young child, my mother used to sit on her father's knee while he told her stories of a far away land - the land of his birth.

He called it a magical, windswept and treeless land - a land of hardship and love. Later he would play the bagpipes and then dance for her. That was ninety years ago, for when he died Mother was five years old and he was seventy.

From my early childhood days my Mother related these stories back to me and I can still see the distant look in her eyes as she spoke. All her life Mother longed to see this special island.

In 1989 my husband and I were able to spend a short time on Coll ( in our blue and white van). We visited every nook and cranny during the day and spent the evenings talking to everyone in the Hotel. We visited Crossapol Bay where my Great Grandparents and their family had lived: we were invited into homes and as we said "Goodnight", six warm eggs or six freshly baked cakes would be given to us. Our only enemy was time - there was just not enough time to visit everyone.

The day we left, Coll was expecting a Force 8 wind and I was hoping the boat would not be able to moor. I didn't know how I was going to feel at leaving this peaceful land with its hospitable inhabitants, but as we pulled out I had the most amazing sense of peace. At that moment I felt very close to my Mother and I knew she was at peace knowing we had visited the Land of Her Father.

Thank you Coll for those wonderfully happy days.

Flora Gunn
Paengaroa
New Zealand 3070

Grand-daughter of Donald McLean Born 1835