| An Appreciation of Mary (Mollie) Fortnum (nee
Mitchell)
Mollie was born in Flotta
in the year 1900, one of four children born to the Manse family [the Mitchell family who
lived in the Kirk Manse], and her childhood years spent in Flotta kindled in Mollie a
great love of the island which never left her, despite her later travels and sojourns, in
other parts of the world.
As a young woman, she left to study nursing at Aberdeen; and she
nursed both her mother and father; and then she went abroad to work as a governess to a
family, first in Hungary - a tremendous experience for a young woman, and which included a
memory which Mollie related to John [her son] - that of dancing with Russian hussars
complete with swirling capes, boots and swords!
Mollie also went to Canada, to where part of her family had gone
before her, and spent some time there, working again as governess to a family.
On her return to Britain Mollie made her base the home of the
Fortnum family; the Mitchell and Fortnum families having met in Flotta, where Derek's
father was in the Naval Reserve during World War I - and a family friendship resulted in
marriage between Mollie and Derek. They married in 1935 in London, where their son
John was born.
War again affected their lives, and the war years were spent
moving about. Derek was a tail-gunner in the RAF in which he took great pride -
among John's memories of these years is that of his mother, together with other RAF wives,
waiting at Bomber Command for the bombers to return.
Within these years also was a spell of a couple of years spent in
Orkney - this was for John the first of many visits and for Mollie just one of many.
Mollie and Derek and John returned to life in London after the
war where Derek worked as an advertising rep on newspapers. On his retiral in about
1983, a dream of Mollie's was fulfilled in their return to Flotta to live.
All through their married life Mollie had hoped for this and I'm
told that in their London days Derek would pacify Mollie if she became restless by sending
her up to Orkney for a short stay.
Mollie was delighted to be back in Flotta and settled at once
despite having led what some might see as a rather more adventurous and colourful life.
Mollie had a deep interest in, and love of this island and its
people, and it was her greatest wish in this past year that she might somehow be able to
return. Each time I saw her in Highland Park (the nursing home) she was planning
some visit, and it was a focus of her thinking.
She realised that wish in part when she made the trip in January
this year, to attend the luncheon laid on by ELF to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the
first oil coming ashore on Flotta.
Mollie was an intelligent and thoughtful woman with a sharp mind
and an acute memory - but combined this with a gracious, kind and gentle nature. She
was, I'm told, a life-long socialist, who also treasured among her experiences a meeting
with the Queen Mother here on Flotta (the Queen Mother having been born in the same year
as Mollie). Mollie mixed easily with all kinds of people, her natural charm ensuring
that she made friends easily.
In appearance Mollie was always elegant and never felt better
than when she had had her hair done - she always took a pride in her appearance and was
always immaculately turned-out.
Naturally graceful, she loved dancing and as well as dancing with
the hussars, had demonstrated the sword-dance in London.
Mollie never conceded anything to old age, she was always looking
ahead and planning for the future, expressing surprise and not a little annoyance when her
memory became slightly (and it was only slightly) less acute than it had been. She
couldn't understand why it should be happening, and you would be tempted to remind her
that she was after all 95 or 96! I used to reassure her by saying that if she was aware
of her memory letting her down, then she was a long way from losing her mind, and couldn't
be too bad!!
Mollie was always a joy to visit - welcoming, charming,
appreciative, engagingly honest and unprudish for her generation and her friendly presence
will be missed.
It must be said in closing, and as testimony to her character,
that she enlisted and enjoyed the great support and help and love and friendship of the
people of Flotta, and those she knew on the Mainland - and especially of Marina and
Phyllis, of Lottie in Kirkwall, of Roger, her immediate neighbour, of Shirley, another
neighbour, of Christine, of Betty, and of course of her family south, and in Canada.
She will be missed but warmly remembered, and will live on in our
memories with respect and affection and while we mourn her passing, we celebrate her life
- a life for which there was much to give thanks.
Read at the Funeral of Molly
Fortnum (nee Mitchell), February 19, 1997, Flotta, Orkney |