Highland rite lights up Caribbean

A little piece of festive Badenoch has been transplanted to the Caribbean this year – and we don’t just mean Irene Hobday.

With the Newtonmore mother on the 4,600-mile trip has gone the ceremony of lighting up a Christmas tree for a loved one.

From the Cayman Islands, Mrs Hobday’s daughter Fiona explained to the “Strathy”: “Every year now, on or around December 1, we have an event called ‘Light up a Life’ at my sister Ginny’s hospice here.

“The origins of this occasion came from a similar event in the Highlands when Christmas trees were lit up in memory of our loved ones.

“Ginny learnt of this beautiful and moving ceremony on one of her visits home and was determined to bring it to the Cayman Islands.

“This year was the seventh time we had the event and it’s become a wonderful way for the Caymanians to honour their deceased relatives and friends and, of course, it’s another link between two beautiful places.

“And Mum is here in the sun for the Christmas holidays, too!”

It’s a very different festive season for Irene, whose Glentruim cottage suffered attacks from fire and flood a year ago – a year in which she also lost her son, Rocky, at just 51.

The former golf pro and caddy to the stars lost a two-year battle with stomach cancer and not long afterwards Mrs Hobday’s home nearly burnt down when an electric blanket went on fire.

Only the quick thinking of her 13-year-old grandson John had saved the building.

Not long after that the torrential winter floods hit her cottage, just outside Newtonmore, as well.

Then the tide turned, so to speak, when she heard her daughter, Dr Virginia Hobday, had been honoured by The Queen for her hospice work in the Cayman Islands.

“It was a terrible year in so many ways,” Mrs Hobday told the “Strathy”, “so it was wonderful to hear the news that one of my other children had been awarded the MBE. It’s certainly something of a consolation, for all the family.”

In October the family gathered at Buckingham Palace, where Ginny was presented with her honour by Prince William.

“It was a lovely day for all of us,” said Fiona, “and my Mother could not have been prouder.”

Mrs Hobday’s daughter has served on the HospiceCare board of directors since 2001 and works in private practice along with her post as medical director for HospiceCare, where a specialised medical team cares for terminally ill patients in the end of their lives.

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