Donella Bartlett, 1950-2022
“Ma shuidheas mi chan èirich mi - If I sit I won’t get back up.”
This was Donella Bartlett’s most common refrain,invariably uttered at the end of the day when most others would be in repose but she felt there was still some work to be done. It stands also for her life – spent striving on behalf of others, whether the family and friends she held so dear or the wider community she helped in her career as a civil servant.
Born in Brue as the second youngest of the six Paterson sisters, or clann nighean Iain Thòsaidh, Donella’s childhood was shaped by the qualities which would come to define her. Her father John Paterson had the typical mid-century Lewisman’s assortment of careers – sailor, weaver, shopkeep - but is perhaps best remembered on Lewis for his time as a county councillor and his championing of the Harris tweed industry. In him Donella found an example of an entrepreneurial spirit tied to a sense of public service. Her mother Mary Paterson née Finlayson (Màiri Choinnich) was a self-sacrificing, loving matriarch whose influence can be traced through her daughters and the many grandchildren who fondly remember her as Granny Brù. It was in memory of her mother’s brother Dòmhnall Ailean, who fell fighting in France in December 1914, that Donella was named.
Raised on the croft that’s been in the family since the 1860s, Donella’s youth was marked by her love of learning and academic achievement. Her sisters remember her as always having her head in a book and this natural intellect would see her named as the Dux of Barvas School. Her children remark that they’ve never encountered anyone else who had their mother’s focused ability to finish any novel in one sitting – the only thing that could stop her doing so was her inability, as a Hebridean woman of a certain vintage, to in good conscience accept such unbridled leisure.
Completing her school studies in the Nicolson Institute, Donella – to her parents’ great pride - became the first of her family to enrol at university when she went to Glasgow to study political economy. She would eventually decide this career path wasn’t for her and – against family expectation - chose to leave her degree and ultimately pursue a career in the civil service. In doing so she demonstrated the resilience and independence of will which would distinguish her.
Suffering the tragedy of being widowed in her 20s, Donella moved to London. There she developed a life-long love of the city and continued to build her career in the civil service – becoming a CEO in the Department of Employment. She was also an active participant inLondon’s Highland social scene as a member of the Highland Society of London. It was at the society’s annual Thames Riverboat Dance in 1982 that she met a young Englishman of Hebridean descent called Michael Bartlett. Within six weeks they were engaged and within 51 they were married. They celebrated their first week as newlyweds by attending the 1983 edition of the Thames Riverboat Dance.
Michael and Donella built their first home together in Catford, south London where they welcomed their first two children Calum Iain and Màiri Alice before moving toCreetown, Kirkcudbrightshire where their final child Niall was born. When Donella’s father passed in 1990 she and Michael returned to Lewis to raise their family in herchildhood home in Brue. In the ensuing 32 years they built a loving house and raised three children of whom she was always incredibly proud. Like her parents before her, Donella and Michael created a home lifewhose influence was felt beyond the family and shaped the many friends they and their children prized so highly.
Like Donella, Michael was one of six siblings. From their base in Brue yearly life revolved around visits to extended family across the UK – Donella’s sisters across Scotland and Michael’s family in the south of England and Belfast as well as his father’s home island of Barra. Often these were the prelude to European summer holidays where they consciously made an effort to take the children to other multilingual parts of Europe such as Belgium, Luxembourg and Brittany. One such trip to Galway, Ireland was less well received when one of the children remarked of the passing scenery: “Tha seo dìreach coltach ri Bràgar! This is just like Bragar!”
Among her work in the community Donella was active in Comann nam Pàrant and contributed to the early development of Gaelic medium education on Lewis. Her oldest child Calum Iain was among the first Gaelic medium intake in Donella’s former school, Barvas Primary, and Màiri Alice and Niall followed soon after. Through the efforts of Donella and her fellow parents, they and their generation benefited from the Gaelic education of which she and her peers had been deprived. She often joked of her envy at seeing the range of Gaelic children’s books available to today’s young parents, remembering her generation’s need to combine bedtime stories with the art of simultaneous translation as they read to their children in Gaelic from English texts.
With the children starting school, Donella resumed her civil service career in Stornoway – most notably working for Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Business Gateway. She was passionately invested in the economic prosperity of the islands and many local businesses are indebted to her for the help and guidance she provided. The tributes to her since her passing bear witness to this.
More than anything else Donella was selflessly devoted to family. Beyond Michael and the children, her five sisters Màiri, Kennag, Nan, Nora and Chirsty Ann were the lodestars of her life and she felt their happiness as keenly as her own. This was a love which they and their families reciprocated in turn – from ceann a staigh Bhrù to New Zealand, Auntie Donella is a much loved, much missed figure within the extended Paterson family. The passing of Nora in 2007 and Kennag in 2016 were losses she felt greatly.
Faced with her diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease in March this year Donella revealed the same steady stoicism and grace which characterised her life.
Donella Bartlett was born on January 16th 1950 and passed away on September 12th 2022. She is survived by her husband Michael and her children Calum Iain, Màiri Alice and Niall.
[This tribute to my mother was written after she passed of motor neurone disease in September 2022. Variations of it appeared on welovestornoway.com and in the 22/9/22 issue of The Stornoway Gazette.]
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