Catriona Macmillan Urquhart

Where do we start with Catriona?

She was a beautiful passionate girl who died too young. I will miss her forever but will remember her with gratitude and joy. She had the best sense of humour of anybody, deflating pomp and restoring simplicity. When she made me laugh it was like the real things of life were exposed and details seemed unimportant.

Anyway, she was born in Glasgow on 21st April 1953, first daughter of Jack and Cathie. She was not alone even then as Jack had a son Jackie from an earlier marriage. She was quickly joined by Ishbel , Alasdair, Roddy and Rhona. Kenny was born in 1965 but died when he was three.

From the start Catriona excelled. She was the brightest girl at her primary school and won a scholarship to Hutcheson Grammar. There she also displayed her athletic skills, running for the Scottish Scoolgirls and playing hockey for the first team.

When she was 14 she discovered the guitar and folk music. Ishbel says she stayed in the attic at Ferryden, the holiday home on the east coast and ignored all the boys who wanted to take her out. She emerged as an accomplished, self taught guitar player with a voice as sweet as honey.

Catriona specialized in sciences and was destined to study medicine at Edinburgh. As usual with her, she bucked the system and went to Queens University Belfast where she studied Russian, Polish language and English Literature. At Queens she forged friendships which have lasted to the end and I have had the pleasure of those friends, who welcomed me as Catriona’s inseparable appendage.

Also at Queens, Catriona was taught by Seamus Heaney, a poet she loved from the start and who was an influence on her. Her own poetry was flowing from an early age and there is a body of work extant which it will be my pleasure to edit.

I met Catriona at York University in 1977, where we were both doing a PGCE. She was considered by her tutors and the school she taught at in Scarborough, to be outstanding, but alas, as with a lot of her talents, she did not want to pursue a career in teaching. She also turned down a post at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, saying she couldn’t see herself as a stuffed shirt! Too true.

We moved to Wales in 1978 when I took up a lecturing post. It was then that Cait started to be consumed by her love of herbs and she began to study to be a Herbalist. She also encouraged me to take up Homoeopathy which I did and we set up the Herbal Treatment Clinic together in Caerleon.

Caiti always had a love of gardens, but it was not until we had our own small garden in Caerleon, that she began her real love of plants; she specialized in Roses, amassing a collection of knowledge and books, together with rare species.

You could say collecting was another passion, particularly books and she put together another fine collection on the Bloomsbury set, particularly Virginia Woolf. She was also a great admirer of Vita Sackville-West and loved the garden at Sissinghurst.

Catriona as a poet is a subject all of its own. Not only did she write beautifully, but she knew so much. Her range of poets was phenomenal and she also put together another collection of modern poets to rival many a library.

She collaborated with Clive Hick- Jenkins in 2002, to produce The Mare’s Tale a book of verses dedicated to Clive’s father but for fathers everywhere. The poems she wrote are poignant, beautiful elegies, but with the bitter sweet quality she knew how to evoke so well. The book is published by The Old Stile Press.

A particular favourite was Geoffrey Grigson, both as a poet and critic and she felt they had much in common as ascerbic and off beam commentators on life. There is also another connection here as Grigson’s wife was a well known cooking writer. Catriona loved books on cooking and right to the end of her life was buying books like “Brazilian Café Cooking” and on Polish Country Cooking.

For a period Cait also worked in the library at University of Wales Newport, where I had moved to in 1990. She was well known for “rescuing” books which were being discarded and on some occasions even managed to save a rare book which was later bought by a collector from the library.

This was about the time when her father fell and was quadriplegic for three years. She never really recovered from this herself and after he died in 1994, she never played the guitar or sang again with any passion.

Her passion for gardens grew however and whenever friends were starting gardens she would drive down with me to deliver a special iris or rare rose. There are gardens all over Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland that have some contribution from Catriona!

In 1997 Catriona was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer. Her consultant told me she had 50:50 survival for 5 years. She went about dealing with it by first of all deciding against surgery, after reading all the evidence, but went into chemotherapy and radiotherapy. We also used a dietary regime and herbal treatments. She remained very healthy for 5 years and always felt she was right to keep her breast as she never wanted to be reminded that she had had cancer. This was her philosophy throughout, making life less easy for the medical profession but doing things her own way to the end.

Her spiritual belief was strong. Not for organised religion but for the continuation of the soul as a force which never dies. She had many friends who were inspired by her and lived by her advice, which was given generously but realistically.

When the cancer returned in 2003, she again embarked on the chemotherapy route, with some success, and once again came back from the brink to have two good years. We were able to finish the house at Ferryden, which has become the annual gathering place for nieces, nephews, family and friends and will continue to do so.

Cait’s last illness was short. She was under treatment for a return of the disease to her bone marrow and was responding well, when, 3 weeks before she died, the disease spread.

She was nursed at home and was again an inspiration to all in her dignity. All her nurses loved and admired her and she died peacefully, without much heavy pain relief, surrounded by all the family, at 10.35 on 1st May , 2005. We all were convinced that she understood to the end what we were saying and also that she chose her moment. Before she died, seven white doves circled the house and then flew off – probably showing her the way!

Ian Hamilton
7th May, 2005
Caerleon