DERRY-born actor Roma Downey has told how her mother’s bone china was a casualty of the early Troubles during a gun battle close to their Bogside home.
The Touched by an Angel star recounts in her new book how the incident, followed a few years later by her mother’s premature death, taught her to “seize the moment.
Her mother, Maureen – from whom she inherited her love of the performing arts – died from a heart attack when Downey was just 10.
She has said the loss was “the most profound incident to happen to me”, something she will “never get over”, and she only “started to recover” with the birth of her own daughter Reilly.
“When I was growing up in Northern Ireland, we had a room in our house that was called The Good Room,” Downey said of one of the stories contained in Box of Butterflies launched on Tuesday in a video on her website LightWorkers.com.
“Inside this room, was a little cabinet that was filled with bone china.
“My mother loved that china dearly. She loved it so much that she kept it under lock and key. We hardly ever used china. It was kept for special occasions.
“Back in the early seventies, at the height of the troubles, the British army had taken to the streets of Northern Ireland and they had brought with them enormous armoured vehicles.
“One day a large military truck drove down our street and as the house began to shake, we heard a loud crash come from the Good Room. My mother cried out as she ran down the hallway and she gasped when she saw what had happened.”
Maureen Downey died a few years later.
“With her young life over too soon, I often wondered what special occasion was she saving that china for,” Downey said.
“Her silver wedding anniversary? My wedding day? My daughter’s christening? All celebrations that she wouldn’t live to see.
“The truth is, none of us know how long we have. So don’t keep your gifts locked up. Go ahead and open up the Good Room in your own heart. Seize the moment and share your time and talents. Let today be the special occasion you’ve been waiting for.”
Each chapter of the book features personal stories and messages from her life with a spiritual message.
