Fantastic cook and

Theresa is remembered as a fun-loving lady who was involved in the lives of many generations of her family, and was devoted to her husband Tony

GREAT-GREAT grandmother Theresa Hardcastle has died just a few weeks before her 91st birthday.

Born Marion Monahan (but always known as Theresa) in Ayr in 1929 – the year of the Wall Street Crash – she was one of eight children; she had six sisters and a brother.

After leaving school at 15, towards the end of World War II, Theresa got a job working as an usher at her local cinema. And it was there she met her husbandto-be, Tony.

“My granddad was obviously rather smitten by the pretty young usher, plucked up the courage to ask her out and they were soon an item,” says granddaughter Sharon Smith. “It was an old-fashioned love story.”

At the time, Tony was working as a member of the ground support staff at nearby RAF Prestwick. During the war the air base was the eastern terminus for the North Atlantic air ferry route – one of the routes by which aircraft were transported from the USA and Canada to Britain, to support the Allied war effort in Europe.

In 1951 the lovebirds tied the knot at St John the Baptist’s Church, Ayr. They then moved to Glasgow and settled down to married life in Easterhouse, on the outskirts of the city. Tony spent most of his working life at the construction company Melville Dundas.

Over the next decade Theresa gave birth to two daughters, Carol and Frances, and son Trevor.

And by the end of her life the matriarch of the family also had four grandchildren, four greatgrandchildren (one of whom sadly predeceased her), and two greatgreat grandchildren.

Granddaughter Sharon has many happy memories of her funloving grandmother.

“I remember how on one Halloween night she dressed up as a witch in a green dress, and even painted her face green too,” she says. “She always got into the spirit of things.”

Theresa, who moved to Summerston with Tony in 1980, remained close to her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren throughout her life.

“My gran was always interested and involved in the lives of her family. She would often phone me or one of her other grandchildren and say: ‘Me and Papa are going for a coffee – do you want to come along?’ ”recalls Sharon.

“Her ‘morning coffee runs’ were renowned for turning into all-day outings – coffee would be followed by lunch, and lunch would be followed by dinner. You always knew that if you went out with my gran for a coffee, you were away for the day! She also loved driving around Fintry and Lennoxtown and heading up to the Campsies.”

Theresa was also a fantastic cook, according to her granddaughter: ‘One of my gran’s signature dishes was Canadian macaroni [a