She was always there to give me her time when I was a kid, often taking me to the cinema and patiently sitting through films I loved but weren't likely to have been to her taste at all. She often took me on holiday - the last time was to Italy in 1987 and I regret it looking back because I was an awkward teenager (at 14) who felt too old to be packed off on holiday with granny and probably complained a lot.

Generally, I regret taking her for granted. As an adult, I didn't visit her often and when I did she would usually listen to me moaning about petty things and setting the world to rights. I last spoke to her when I phoned her from an Indian restaurant where my wife and I were celebrating receiving a scan of our first son in the womb. We have four children now and they would have been Mary's first great grandchildren. 

Unfortunately, she never got to see the scan, let alone meet any of her great grandchildren. While eating an evening meal alone in her home, she suddenly suffered a stroke and, though she managed to dial her daughter Patsy (my aunt) for help, she slipped into a short coma from which she never woke.

I suppose she would have appreciated that the end came so quickly and unexpectedly, but those she left behind still go on missing her.  

- Jerome Joseph Kennedy