Mrs. Adeline Little, known as Ada, has died recently aged 89. She was born at Altawark near Corranny and received her education at nearby Doon school which she attended until aged 14. On leaving school she entered live-in domestic service which entailed working seven days per week with alternate Sundays off. This could have been regarded as a normal working pattern in those days. When not employed in service she lived with her mother who by then had moved to Tireevil near Magheraveely and then to Tatnagolan near Aghadrumsee. Lace-making and the production and sale of crochet was one of the ways in which she was able to bring in some much needed money.

It was at a social event in her old school at Doon that she met her future husband John Little from Brookeborough. He was helping to provide the music that evening. It amused her in later years to say that she married one of the boys from the band which younger listeners thought terribly romantic. The reality was that the music was provided by just two men, one with an accordion and the other with a fiddle. She got the accordionist.

After her marriage she lived variously in Co. Antrim, with her mother at Aghadrumsee and in a small house at Killyfole until her husband, by then employed with the Forestry Service, was offered one of the Forestry's houses at Roslea. It was there that she reared a family of three sons and a daughter whilst at the same time caring for two disabled relatives who were no longer capable of independent living. She was also at various times employed by the Home Help service looking after elderly neighbours.

Following the death of her husband she moved in 1980 to the village of Clabby. She continued her employment with the Home Help service assisting in the care of several elderly residents in the village and at various times assisting in the running of the local Post Office. In later years she attended Stonepark Baptist Church until declining health meant that she could no longer participate in public worship.

Her health slowly declined in her last decade and by January 2010 her dementia had reached such a state that she could no longer be safely cared for at home. She entered the County Care Home in Enniskillen and soon settled there although she was by then incapable of understanding her situation. It was indicative of how caring for others was so deeply ingrained in her nature that whilst in the Care Home she was continually concerned about the welfare of elderly relatives, now long dead but whom she fondly imagined to be still alive. Following a short spell as an in-patient she died peacefully in the South West Acute Hospital on the morning of 24th August, 2012.

The funeral service was held in Stonepark Baptist Church, conducted by Pastor James McLatchie assisted by Mr. Jim Graham. The organist was Mrs. Yvonne Graham. There were three hymns - Ada's favourite "What a Friend we have in Jesus," "Safe in the Arms of Jesus" and "Shall we gather at the River." The remains were then interred in the family plot in St. Margaret's Churchyard, Clabby.

Ada is survived by three sons, Mervyn in High Wycombe, Noel in Belfast and Thomas at Clabby. A daughter, Edith, predeceased her in 2008. The funeral arrangements were by Ian McCutcheon and Son, Funeral Directors, Clabby, Fivemiletown.