Letter: Forty years on from that dark day, I will honour Mum and Dad - all those who suffered during the Troubles must be remembered
A letter from Rev David Clements
I had cause recently to write to a journalist in another newspaper to commend her for a piece she had written about two mostly forgotten victims of the Troubles.
I was rather emotional, not just because of the story she was retelling, but also because the date was my Mother’s birthday.
She would have been 92 had she not passed away three years ago.
She was married to my Dad for 28 years and then 40 years ago last Sunday, December 7, he was murdered by the IRA at Ballygawley RUC Station.
Mum then lived another 38 years as a widow, bringing up my younger siblings who were still at home, and by the grace of God, being a moral and spiritual rock in our family.
In time she also became an inspiration to her 12 grandchildren. She didn’t quite live to see any great grandchildren, of which there are now six, but you can be sure, in time, they too will know of her courage, faith, hope and love.
In my letter I shared with this journalist that Sunday would be the 40th anniversary of Dad’s murder.
By a strange irony (certainly not planned on my part) my text for that Sunday morning was to be John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; but I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (It is an Advent series on four reasons Jesus gives for His coming in John’s Gospel.)
It was a poignant text for me to wrestle with, on the 40th anniversary of my Father’s murder.
I can’t tell you how much time and toil I have given to the question of ‘dealing with the legacy of the past’. Regular readers will have occasionally read some of my views here in these pages.
Like many others, I appreciate the interest the News Letter has shown in the subject.
As we now go through another legal cycle there are lots of questions I can’t answer, but I know two things – we must not blur the truth to rewrite history and we must remember and honour those who suffered the most.
I will remember and honour both Mum and Dad (Ella and Billy Clements) as together they enjoy life to the full, in the presence of their Good Shepherd.
Rev David Clements, Cullybackey