This article is one of a series about people who have died with coronavirus in Ireland and among the diaspora. Read more at irishtimes.com/covid-19-lives-lost. If you would like a friend or family member included in the series, please email: liveslost@irishtimes.com.
Elizabeth (Liz) Traynor 1941-2020
Elizabeth Kinsella, known to family and friends as Liz, met the love of her life Jim Traynor in a London hospital ward.
She was 19 at the time and worked in catering in the hospital. Jim was 19 too and a patient who had come in after a motorbike accident. "Their eyes met across the ward and that was it," says her daughter Madeleine Blake.
She had moved to England aged 16 from her home in Ferns, Co Wexford where she was born on April 4th, 1941, one of three children. Her brother Jimmy died more than 10 years ago and her sister Mary in 2018.
Liz and Jim lived in Hayes, Middlesex in west London before returning to Ireland and moving to Troytown in Navan, Co Meath 43 years ago, where Jim worked as a miner for Tara Mines until his retirement in 2001.
She took pride in her appearance right to the end and loved [perfume brand] 5th Avenue
When he died of lung cancer in 2017, she was broken-hearted and never really got over it. “Even the Monday night before she died she was crying about wanting to be with him and missing him.”
Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s the year of her husband’s death, she already had other health issues; she had her first heart attack at 50, and a second one at 72, at which point she was given a defibrillator.
But throughout her life “she was kind, caring, gentle and a bundle of fun” and “always up for the craic”, her daughter recalls. “She loved her country music and was a big Elvis fan. She loved dancing in the Ardboyne hotel” in Navan, where she went regularly on a Monday night with all her pals.
“She took pride in her appearance right to the end and loved [perfume brand] 5th Avenue. With Alzheimer’s she wouldn’t remember that she was spraying perfume, so the joke was she was going through three bottles of 5th Avenue a week.”
The perfume and getting her hair done on a Friday kept her happy. “That was her little thing.”
Minded at home by her family, she started going to the Alzheimer centre three days a week and loved it until her back started giving her trouble, which put pressure on her heart and she ended up in hospital in Navan. She came home after eight days but was hospitalised again shortly afterwards.
The whole street was full and they were all clapping. They made a very bad situation lovely
Liz died on April 3rd at 8pm, the night before her 79th birthday. She had been tested for Covid-19. The result came back positive the day after her death.
On the morning of her funeral the sun was shining, the birds were singing and her Troytown neighbours, who had lived near her for more than 40 years, stood at their gates in tribute.
“The whole street was full and they were all clapping. They made a very bad situation lovely,” says Madeleine.
Liz Traynor is survived by her four children, Paddy, Mary, Madeleine and Philip, her nine grandchildren and great-grandson AJ.
