From: noahidebooksforever@gmail.com

The Life of Mary Philomena Daly

A biography by her son Daniel Thomas Andrew Daly

with thoughts from my own life intermixed

Mary Daly was born in Kingston upon Hull in England in the United Kingdom on the 7th of July 1937. She was the third child of Tom Baker and Gladys Baker, her two older brothers being Terrence and Gerald. Mum and Terrence didn't get along terribly well
she tells me, but she and Gerald seemed to get along better. Mum remembers the war years. Hull was bombed a fair bit when she was a wee little one. She saw real war devastation, but seemed to come through unscathed emotionally. She liked music a bit, and
some of the stars she liked were Lonnie Donnegan and Val Doonican. She tells me
she was a bit too early for the Beatles, and doesn't appear to have had much of
an inclination for the music of the 1960s or later. We always had the radio on in Berridale,
and she listened to that, but I don't think she really ever became much of a fan of latter music artists, although in latter years there have been some bands she likes, like 'The Priests' and she is fond of the lads 'The Justice Crew' but is not really
into their music as such. More of a Father Chris Riley fan who was instrumental
with the lads. She studied at a Girls Catholic School, taught by French Nuns, in Hull, and then worked in various jobs, before meeting my father Cyril Daly on a Lourdes
pilgrimage in the mid 1960s. They married and Matthew, my older brother, was born on the 21st of October 1969. They lived in Jindabyne to start with in New South Wales, but then moved to Berridale, not far from there. My mum and dad are big parts of my
childhood memories. There was one time when I was outside of 7 Bent Street in Berridale were we lived and I wanted to get onto the roof. I had explored the entire perimeter of the House and deduced I needed a ladder. Dad had a heavy metal blue ladder (
which is currently rusting in the back yard of 29 Merriman) which I attempted to unfold to put against the house. But I was too little and got caught in between the folds of the ladder. I screamed and screamed for mum for a number of minutes, before she
finally appeared. I was so thankful to her for it. She tells me that one of her
memories is me coming home from school on my first day and saying ‘Thank God for That’. Mum has a definite English accent, still does, and has not yet taken out
Australian Citizenship, but is a permanent resident. But she calls herself and Aussie Pom because she has lived in Australia longer than she lived in England.
In Berridale we went to the Catholic Church from my earliest memories. Mum and Dad would take
us in the car, the family, and I would sit there, staring at the cross, not thinking much except that it was boring. Mum and Dad prayed the rosary at home in those days and we occasionally had people over to pray at nights. Mum was in
the kitchen a lot
and the radio seemed to be perpetually on. I remember hearing the new songs and
learning them quickly, and liking them. Mum likes some of the old artists from around the 1950s, but doesn’t really listen to them at all. She listens to classical music
mainly when she listens to music. There was a time when Grandma Gladys in England sent us a big box of stuff from England. We got lots of surprises. Mum would visit Mrs Luchetta in Berridale a lot and some of the other Berridale residents. She always
seemed to be very chatty, and we would stay behind after church was finished for mum to chat to her friends, which she has never stopped doing after church and still does. I remember that Mum went into hospital a while after Greg was born, and she had a
miscarriage. I figured that out in time. When Greg was little I remember wanting to hold him, but mum said Brigid would, because she was older or something like that. We travelled to Cooma via the bus when we started school. I remember one time, coming
home, we had missed mum at the bus stop in Cooma and came home alone. There was
a big doll she had made, and I was ever so grateful to her and hugged her for it. It meant the world to me and I really loved my mother for it. I remember riding my first
bike out the front of 7 bent street on the road. Mum would look at us and I would shout ‘Watch me’ as all kids do.

We moved to Cooma around 1980 and the ‘Collins’ were across the road. We lived at 6 Bradley Street, and Mum became friends with Mrs Collins across the road, who also went to the Catholic Church. Us kids played with Peter Collins a
lot, who also went
to the Catholic School and was in Jacinta’s year. Peter’s cousin was David Lancaster, who was in my year. David was a pretty big guy, and I liked him, but
I was never too popular with him or the other kids in the Catholic school. At times I was a
little bit befriended, but not much. However, around 15 I befriended some of the kids from the Public school and had a new gang. That is were I seemed to fit in and probably explains why I eventually left Catholicism. Sort of, in my mind, Noahide equates
with ‘Public Schools’ (aka State Schools in Australia), and Catholicism is for Christians. Even though, as a courtesy to Jesus, I attended the Catholic Church last Sunday (I go a couple of times a year) mainly to honour the early commitments I made
as a Catholic in my youth, I really am not a believer in Catholicism or Christianity. But, in truth, Jesus, to my mind, just started a ‘Torah-Like’
ministry anyway, and the moral and ethical teachings of Jesus probably do deserve to last forever and,
in a non Christian sense, he deserves to have a spiritual community based on his teaching enduring throughout eternity. Sort of a ‘Kosher Jesus friendly Assembly’ which is NON-Christian and NON-Messianic in any way, because he WASN’T the Messiah,
but he taught some good ideas anyway. To my mind, he wanted to start a spiritual community, so for his evangelistic efforts he deserves some sort of permanent legacy. Jews sometimes call him one of their own and a watered down gospel could maybe one day
pop up in some sort of Jewish assembly which didn’t mind Jesus on a personal human level. I had some ideas for a ‘Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth Ministries’ which removed all the ‘Christ’ ideas from Matthew Mark and Luke and all the scathing anti
Jewish comments (which I think Jesus is now over with in his heavenly domain – were I do believe he lives alongside the righteous who have died) and start
a Jew friendly Jesus club, for want of a better word. Someone might do that one
day.

Mum is a big Jesus fan, of course. Quite into him these days, and serves on the
altar as a ‘Minister of the Eucharist’. She is FAITHFUL and has hardly missed a Sunday service in her whole life, just like my father, and my older brother Matthew. My
brother Gregory goes a lot of the time as well still. I personally really wish I had a Noahide fellowship here in Canberra to attend, as I would probably go practically every day – but Noahidism is just beginning, so I concentrate on my personal
studies and devotions. Mum went to ‘Galong’ in New South Wales to the various Catholic retreats at the monastery there throughout my years growing up, with Dad. We kids were bought along a few times, and it is a lovely place. You definitely notice
the peace and tranquillity in the place which is through all the prayers of the
saints offered up to God. I am quite sure God keeps faith with Catholics as well and loves them dearly. I just think they haven’t quite worked out yet that he isn’t a
Trinity and connected to Jesus in that sense. They are two separate beings. Jehovah’s witnesses know this – Catholics will hopefully eventually work that out. But God definitely loves the faithful Catholic Church, and they are his people too. As it
goes for all the people of the God of Noah and Abraham. Mum is of average height for a woman, a little bit of extra weight, which has diminished in her older age. She reads constantly, mainly thrillers and crime dramas, but other stuff as well. She
watches a lot of the British television programs on crime drama, as well as being a big fan of ‘Home and Away’. Her best friend here in Canberra is ‘Trish Kirby’ who is a strong theological lady in the local Catholic Church
here in Gowrie were
they both attend. Trish’s husband ‘Ron’ is non-religious, but I think he is a great guy, and there grand children ‘Liam’ and ‘Noah’ are tops. Trish has been a strong friend of mums for years, and gave the eulogy a few years ago at dad’s
wedding. Dad lived to 84. Mum misses him, but life goes on in the end. She keeps his photos up around the house. They were a faithful couple in their marriage – definitely took it seriously – and were great examples to me because of it.

Religiously she is strong in the faith, without being too strict or too modernistic. She feels there is something to Christianity simply because it has
continued to exist for so long. She might be right. She has standard catholic paraphernalia around the
house, including a small Jesus statue, some pictures and other stuff, but doesn’t go on about it too much during the week. She studies the bible from time to time these days, and seems to be keeping the faith even stronger in her
elderly years. To my
mind she has definitely ‘Walked the Walk’ and has never slacked off. She is
a genuine Catholic Christian. Nothing fake about her (or dad for that matter on
the issue). She has worked with St Vincent de Paul society, as has dad, and done teaching of
RCIA and taught religion to little kids in school. She has been quite involved with the Catholic community her whole life, and is the ‘Real McCoy’ when it
comes to a practicing Catholic. She probably gets along a bit better with her daughters than
her sons, but this seems to be a feminine bonding thing. But we are a strongly connected family, and it is good living here with her at 29 Merriman, despite our arguments which crop up. She gives as good as she gets, but she always knows when to give it
a rest. Another of mum’s strong friends is ‘Jill Torley’ who now lives over in Western Australia. Jill writes letters to mum a lot (and she also sends
me birthday cards) and we have known Jill and her family for years now. Jill is
a very faithful
Catholic like mum, and a big reader of the Bible as well. Jill has a few sons, and Paul Torley has been close to the family as well. Mainly in Cooma years, even though he now lives in Canberra as well like us, but he has a lot of children so is a very
busy man. Jill sometimes does artwork in the letters she sends, and writes little short stories from time to time. She is quite a good artist. Of course, she trained in music and is a piano teacher. These days she is well retired from that life as far as
I understand it. Mum studies a lot with father Michael Fallon’s scripture studies groups at the ‘Curtin Catholic Centre’ in Woden. Michael has written a large number of commentaries on the bible, and his translations of the text are very good. We
have a copy of his ‘Isaiah’ commentary, and it illuminates the text in a way I hadn’t seen before. He is a quite competent priest, and currently is parish priest in the Kippax church. He has a website if people want to go looking for it.

Mum likes shows like ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and likes to watch ‘Sunrise’ on channel 7 a lot. She is usually busy enough and is out most days of the week doing this or that with some group or another. She has a form of diabetes and gets
medication for it, but a recent medical improvement has helped her ‘Sugar Levels’ quite a bit. She is doing well now. I think, when all is said and done, Mary Daly will likely be very happy with her life. She has led a positive, helpful life – been
faithful to God with the knowledge she has – married, raised 5 good kids, and
been a positive servant of the community. She has a good reputation with a lot of people and, to my way of thinking, has benefited mankind because of it. She leaves a good
legacy to her offspring. When she finally passes I will do up a myspace site dedicated to her, but can’t do that because she objects to such things. But when she is dead I will do it anyway whether she likes it or not. And while she
probably wouldn’t
like me posting this biography online, I am going to do it anyway simply because I want to make sure she is remembered. I think, in time in the next life, she will approve of what I have done. All things considered, Mary Daly was and is and has been a
good virtuous woman of God. She would be the first to say she was not perfect, but she has always cared, always loved, and always done her best. I am proud of
her.


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