Page 10 - LOTN Spring Issue 52 2023

OBITUARY

Ena Ross RIP
na Ross, who grew up in the Highlands before Ena had decided she was going to become a nurse.
forging a nursing career in Edinburgh and Too young to start nurse training right away, she worked
Aberdeen, has died aged 96. during the war years in the Beauly employment office,
E In the immediate post-war period, she trained at acquiring a thorough knowledge of everyone in Beauly and
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary then rose to become a sister in the surrounding district.
frontline nursing. In 1945 she was able to start nurse training in Edinburgh
During the 1970s, she moved to Aberdeen to support her Royal Infirmary. Though she had brief periods nursing in
father and began work as a nurse tutor at Aberdeen Royal Inverness and Aberdeen, most of her long nursing career was
Infirmary. spent in Edinburgh.
Ena was a regular worshipper at St Mary’s Cathedral in By the time she qualified in 1949 her father had married
Aberdeen and was a member of several Catholic associations Meg, who was from Lossiemouth, and they went to live in
and prayer groups. Aberdeen where Jimmy re-trained as a surveyor.
Together with her friend, Elsie Hammond, Ena made After a successful career in Edinburgh, Ena took on a further
numerous pilgrimages with the Diocese of Aberdeen including challenge in the 1970s, and went back to study to become a
to Lourdes and Rome. nurse-tutor.
Ena was born on December 27 1926 at the west end of When her stepmother became very ill in the late 1970s,
Glen Strathfarrar, one of the long glens that run west from Ena took a post as nurse-tutor in Aberdeen so that she could
Strathglass. support her father. After Meg died, Ena continued to look
Her father, Jimmy Ross, had come to the glen to work as a after her father in the house they shared in Rosebery Street.
stalker and gamekeeper for the Lovat Estate. Ena retired in 1986 and although she had episodes of quite
He married local girl, Violet Cameron. Violet’s family was serious ill health she recovered from these and continued to
Catholic, as were many in the Strathglass area, and Jimmy too live a full and busy life, keeping in touch with friends and old
became a Catholic. colleagues and with her numerous Ross relations.
Ena was brought up in the Catholic faith and like her father She enjoyed trips abroad and quite regular trips to Inverness-
was a devoted member of the church. shire to re-visit the scenes of her youth. Ena never forgot her
Sadly, Ena was just four years old when her mother died. Strathglass roots and took great pleasure in trips up to Glen
Her father remained at home, but she went to live with her Strathfarrar to see her birthplace.
grandmother at Milton at the bottom of the glen, and it was Ena continued to be an active member of the church and
there she grew up. was also involved in voluntary work, such as Crossroads Care
She went to school at Struy, about a mile away, and then to and was a supporter of the Sacred Heart convent at Queen’s
secondary school in Beauly. Cross, the Ladies Circle and the Catholic Nurses Guild.
Although she was a star pupil, the family allowed her to
leave school instead of going on to get her Highers, because Chris Ferguson (Aberdeen Press and Journal)

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