An 85-year-old Welsh man with no family in Ireland is to have his dying wish honoured by having his ashes scattered at a housing complex where he lived for over a decade.
Kenyon Jones Ginn, fondly known as Taffy, lived in the Mount St Joseph Housing Complex off Blarney Street in Cork from 2007 to 2021 and his dying wish was for his ashes to be scattered on the grounds of the complex, which is run by the charity, SHARE (Student Harness Aid for the Relief of the Elderly).
SHARE Homes Co-ordinator, Catherine O’Brien told The Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s Red FM that she first got to know Mr Jones Ginn around 15 years ago and she used to continue to visit him after he got dementia and moved out of St Joseph’s Housing Complex to a nursing home in 2021.
“I got to know Taffy in about 2010. We used to run pool leagues and tournaments at the time, and he loved playing pool. He was a real gentleman. He was very interested in rugby, and he taught in a Sunday School in Wales. He also used to preach in the church, but he knew that wasn’t for him.
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“He was very active at Mount St Joseph SHARE complex. He just loved the place. He loved it so much that his wishes were that when he would die, he would want the SHARE students to carry his coffin and then he would be cremated and his ashes spread around St Joseph.”
And so on Monday morning in bright December sunlight, some 20 SHARE Volunteers dressed in their distinctive canary yellow tops, helped carry Mr Jones Ginn’s coffin from Coughlan’s Funeral Home to the waiting hearse as shopkeepers and others lined Shandon Street to pay their final respects.
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“He wanted to become a truck driver and he did,” said Ms O’Brien who carried a photo of Mr Jones Ginn, “He drove all over Wales and England. I don’t know how he ended up in Cork, he never said why but he loved it here and he was well loved by people here too who knew him.”
Ms O’Brien said Mr Jones Ginn told her that was adopted by a member of the clergy when his parents died when he was aged just four and that he later married and had six children but had lost contact with them.
It’s understood a family member has made contact with the SHARE team in recent days.
Once SHARE volunteers receive Mr Jones Ginn’s ashes back from the Island Crematorium, they will scatter his ashes at a ceremony at the SHARE Mount St Joseph’s Complex, one of seven such units in Cork operated by SHARE, providing accommodation for 140 elderly and vulnerable people.
Donations can be made to SHARE at sharecork.org or by giving to the 1,000 SHARE volunteers who will take to the streets of Cork between now and Christmas Eve to raise money for the charity.
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