TV presenter Mary Kennedy has revealed one of her biggest regrets was not saying a final farewell to her father.
The veteran broadcaster was living in France in 1977 when her dad died unexpectedly of a heart attack playing golf.
She flew home immediately, but well-meaning neighbours advised her not to see him laid out in his coffin.
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Mary, 68, said: “I got a phone call to say my father had taken a turn... I didn’t realise until I got back to Dublin that he actually was already dead. When he was laid out in the mortuary of St Vincent’s neighbours said ‘no, don’t go in and see him, remember him how you saw him last in January’.
“And I’m sorry I didn’t, I think that I would have liked to see him laid out in the coffin, to have said goodbye to him one more time.”
Dubliner Mary tears up on RTE’s Keys to My Life as she recalls a letter waiting for her at her flat in France when she returned after the funeral.
She said: “He was a great letter writer and he wrote me letters all the time. When I arrived back there was one – it only arrived after he died.It was very sad because he was no longer with us.
“He always ended it with ‘mind yourself’... I was the eldest, he used to call me his pet.
“I still miss him, I loved him so much. He was a special man.”
Mary started working as a part-time continuity announcer at RTE while working as a teacher at her alma mater, Colaiste Bhride in Clondalkin.
Her career with the national broadcaster ended after more than 40 years in 2019, but she wasn’t happy about it. She said: “I was obliged to retire at 65, it’s not a path I would have chosen.
“I’m a real person for abiding by the rules, but I didn’t like the rules, I didn’t like the fact that 65 was the cut-off point.
“I think if people have energy and the inclination to work they should be allowed to continue working.
“I’m 68 now and I don’t feel any different to 20 years ago.
Keys to My Life is on RTE One tonight at 8.30pm.
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