Muriel Young was born in Banbridge in 1929, the youngest of two children. Together with her brother Leslie, who passed away in 2014, she was brought up in the rooms above the family drapery shop in Bridge Street, by her father, Joseph, and her Glaswegian born mother, May.

During Muriel’s childhood, she developed a love of (amongst other things): cooking, (of course being from Banbridge) hockey, and cats.

After leaving school, Muriel worked in the family draper’s shop until, in 1953, when she married the love of her life, William Cross, also from Banbridge. He was 15 years her senior and Muriel loved to recount the tale of an acquaintance who abruptly told her that her marriage would never last. Well, it lasted rightly and only ceased after 52 years when her beloved Billy died in 2006, at the ripe old age of 91.

In 1956, following the recent closure of the railway line, Muriel and Billy decided to move to Belfast and bought a house, nearby, in Dorchester Park, where they lived for the remainder of their lives. In Muriel’s case, this was for over 60 years and, at the time of her passing, she was the oldest and longest resident in Dorchester Park.

It was in this house, that Muriel and Billy raised their two sons (Brian and Peter).  Muriel’s world has always centred around her family, so, it was somewhat poetic that she passed away on the 11th May, exactly midway between her two sons’ birthdays.

Latterly, Muriel has had her fair share of health problems, which have included eyesight and memory difficulties. However, although she often struggled to remember what she had had for lunch earlier that day, she was always able to surprise her family with her continuing ability to remember names and recognise faces from over eighty years ago.

Muriel’s ashes have been buried alongside Billy’s in Banbridge; and there, within the same cemetery, she has also been reunited with her brother, mother and father too.

We give thanks for a full life that, like Billy’s, stretched back over more than 91 years.

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...and from 15 years earlier...

William 'Billy' Cross (22nd December 1914 to 19th January 2006)
 
Billy was born in Banbridge in 1914, the youngest of a family of three children. However, sadly his father (also called William) died when Billy was only three and his mother (Mary), his sister (Eileen) and brother (Howard) all passed away during the 1950s.
 
As a youth, as well as showing great academic talent, Billy acquired a taste for many sports including tennis, badminton and rugby. However, like many Banbridge men, it was hockey that became his chief sporting passion in life and Billy went on, in due course, to captain the Banbridge first eleven team. Even after his playing days were over, he umpired for many years and, off the field, served as the club’s Honorary Secretary and, ultimately, as their President. Furthermore, he served as the President of the Ulster Branch of the Irish Hockey Union.
 
Upon leaving Banbridge Academy, Billy immediately joined the Civil Service in 1933 where he subsequently spent his entire working life before finally retiring in 1979. During his long and successful career he served with the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce and, finally, with the Department of Exchequer and Audit. Indeed, in 1979, his dedicated public service was recognised and he was invested at Buckingham Palace by the Queen as a Companion of the Imperial Service Order.
 
After retirement, he joined Probus (the retired Professional and Business person’s club) and had many happy mornings attending their meetings. In turn he became the Secretary, then the President of the club; although latterly, by all reports, he had largely become a sleeping partner.
 
On a personal level, Billy had once concluded that he was destined to live his life as a bachelor. However, all that was to change when he met the love of his life, Muriel. Subsequently, and at the ripe old age of 38, he married Muriel in Banbridge’s Scarva Street Presbyterian Church in 1953 and they went on to have two sons, Brian and Peter, who in turn have supplied them with four grandchildren, Jennifer, Catherine, Jemima and Oliver. In fact, only recently Billy had said that if he could live his life over again, there were some things he might change but that his marriage, of over fifty years, to Muriel was definitely not one of them.
 
In 1956, the closure of the railway line connecting Banbridge to Belfast necessitated Billy and Muriel moving to Belfast and there they remained, in the same house, ever since. However, their hearts have remained loyal to Banbridge and Billy’s ashes will be interred in Banbridge New Cemetery at a later date.
 
So today, rather than just grieving, Billy’s family would ask you to join them in celebrating a full life which has stretched back over the last 91 years.

...PS In 2007, Billy (posthumously) gained a fifth grandchild (Harriet).