OBITUARY: Elizabeth (Babe) Mackay, Skerray
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Elizabeth Margaret Guthrie Mackay, or ‘Babe’ as she was better known, was born at the Old Post Office, Skerray on November 15, 1934.
The oldest of her five siblings had been born in the warmer climes of South Africa where her father, a baker with Robert Garden and Sons at their premises near Skerray Pier, had emigrated in a fit of pique when his request for a rise of a penny an hour had been denied.
However, by the time Babe came along the family were back in Skerray running the PO, and she entered the world by the hearthstone of the kitchen stove, that being the only warm spot in the house.
She attended Skerray Primary School before going on to secondary education at the High School in Lairg where she met up with people from all over the county many of whom became her friends for life.
After leaving school at 15, though she was helping out at the Post Office, Babe was at a bit of loose end and, after writing to the Earl Haig Fund to volunteer her services, took up the duty of Poppy Day collector for Skerray and Borgie, a task she pursued annually and with gusto for more thn 70 years.
Initially she made the rounds on her push-bike but soon forsook this for a car and, towards the end, relied on friends and neighbours for transport. But she never gave up!
That wasn’t her only act of public service as, in 1960 at the height of the Cold War, she joined the Royal Observer Corps and, after training in Inverness, took up the organisation’s role of aircraft recognition and reporting.
The aim was to spot and track Russian aircraft entering UK airspace but, as far as anyone knew, she never did see any, though it could be that she was restrained by the Official Secrets Act.
Also, she played an important role in the 1950s Common Cold Experiment on Eilean nan Ron which she recently gave an excellent account of on BBC Landward.
In 1970 she married Dounreay worker and lobsterman, Sinclair Mackay of Harbour View, Skerray and the couple had three children, twins Christy and Hugh, followed by Leslie a couple of years later.
Sadly, Hugh became ill and, after a long distressing struggle with leukaemia passed away at the tender age of ten.
hough this was a terribly stressful time for Babe. she picked herself up and carried on while adding another string to her fundraising bow by holding coffee mornings, sales of work and other events on behalf of Macmillan Nurses which brought in thousand of pounds over the years.
Though she spent almost all her life within a few hundred yards of the hearthstone on which she was born, Babe really enjoyed holidaying and travelling with her sisters and her family.
This began modestly with visits to Edinburgh and London but grew to take in places as far afield as Tenerife and culminated with a Mediterranean cruise along with Leslie and his family.
Wherever she was, Babe was full of fun and looked forward to any occasion where dressing up was an option. At Halloween it wasn’t just the Skerray kids who went guizing – that ghost leaping out from behind a whin bush was almost certain to be Babe as was the Santa Claus who might surprise a neighbour with a present.
She passed away at Harbour View on Tuesday December 8, having just come home from hospital and will be sadly missed by all who knew her not least for her skills as a raconteur.
She always professed a desire to fly beyond the confines of the earth and, failing that, wanted to be first in line to witness the launch of satellites from the proposed space port on the Mhoine. Sadly, she didn’t live to fulfil that one.
The funeral service was conducted by the Reverend Andrew Fraser, former Free Church Minister at Skerray, and Babe was laid to rest at Skerray Cemetery on Tuesday December 15. Jim A Johnston
