Patty claims she is a late developer. Late at growing up and late in life at being ordained – she was ordained deacon in the Scottish Episcopal Church in 1986 at age 70. She is a Franciscan Hermit of the Transfiguration – the other two members of this community are Roland Walls and John Halsey. Some of the history of this community is explained in the book about Roland Walls called A Mole under the Fence by Ron Ferguson published last year.
True to the Franciscan tradition she has lived in a spartan flat in Loanhead for thirty years or more and has a chapel in a shed in her garden where she welcomes all comers to pray and reflect on life.
Patty was born in 1916 in a house called Easter Warriston in North Edinburgh and remembers a happy childhood climbing sooty trees in the area (long before smokeless zones!). She and her sisters used to walk to St Oran’s School in Drummond Place. Her family were the last to give up the use of horse and cart in Edinburgh, and she remembers an incident where a train on the North Edinburgh Line to Leith startled their horse and it bolted - they were only saved by a brave man coming out of Waterston’s the printers (beside what is now B&Q) and grabbing the bridle. Their house Easter Warriston has now become Warriston Crematorium and the original drawing room windows are still in place in the large chapel.
When I went to visit Patty recently I realised that she had had her hair cut and it transpired that it was for the first time in fifty years! I asked her how she had decided to take this step.
“One day my fingers would not do what they were told any more. That morning I could not get my fingers to hold the Kirkby grip which held my long hair in place so I knew the hair had to come off. I had thought if I had it cut I would have to perm it but I haven’t. It looks fine just as it is. I am very glad it’s cut. I can go out in the wind and it doesn’t matter!”
The hairdresser in Portobello which her daughter recommended really entered into the importance of this occasion and handled it very sensitively.
“It was wonderful, a kind lady washed my hair in a way it had not enjoyed for years, and the final result was liberating.”
She may consider herself a late developer but the ability to change is still with her.
Mary Moffett
