My mother was the religious stalwart in our house as well. Looking back she personified the good things of the Catholic faith. She loved being a member of the Catholic mothers group, loved trips to Lourdes & Knock. A very calm woman, nothing seemed to faze her and she just got on with life, raising us and keeping house. She didn’t have much, my old man always tipped the wages up and we certainly didn’t go without but, in hindsight, was that to her detriment? I know it’s my Mam but if every religious person, and she was massively Catholic, lived their life like her the world wouldn’t be too bad a place.
One funny anecdote, towards the end of her life, St Alban’s church provided a mini bus to pick elderly parishioners up for Saturday night mass. When she passed away the other ‘bus goers’ retired her seat
Its been a few years now so I trust someone’s sat in it now.