Miss Daisy MacKinnon, Struan
Daisy MacKinnon was born in 1912 in the parish of Bracadale in the Isle of Skye. She was the daughter of Duncan MacKinnon, the highly esteemed elder and missionary of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, in Bracadale, and his like-minded wife, formerly Georgina Porteous. Daisy, thus, had the inestimable privilege of being born into a family in which the name of God was known and revered. She was a bright, intelligent girl who was keen to enter the nursing profession, but in the over-ruling providence of the Lord she became deaf while still in her teens and was unable to follow her chosen career. This disabling affliction was to continue all her life but it did not dim the brightness of her Christian witness.
Daisy came to know the Saviour while still in her teens and made a public profession of her faith at the first Free Presbyterian communion to be held in Portnalong. The esteem in which Daisy was held, by those who knew her well, is highlighted by this anecdote. On the Saturday of the Portnalong communion Rev. D. MacDonald, Portree, the congregation’s Interim Moderator, and Mr Alexander Beaton, the Struan elder, returned to the house of Mrs MacAskill, Carbost Beg (mother of the late esteemed Mr D. MacAskill), after the meeting of the Kirk Session. In reply to the quizzical look of Rev. D. N. MacLeod, Ullapool, who was assisting at the communion, Mr Beaton said “Chuir sin uan eile ris an treud bhig” (“We have added another lamb to the little flock”). Rev. MacLeod’s reply was “Cha chreid mi nach fhaodadh sibh sin” (“I think you could”) indicating that (in Mr MacLeod’s opinion) Daisy was worthy of the privilege to which she had been admitted.
Unable to follow her chosen vocation, she was to prove an invaluable help to her mother who was left a young widow in 1931, in the midst of the Depression. Daisy was her constant companion and helper and the conversation at Craig-lea, the family home, was often of spiritual realities. Vital godliness was then known and seen in the land and left its mark on that generation. She felt her mother’s death in 1958 very keenly but was comforted by the knowledge that her mother had displayed for many years that she was one who had the “good hope through Grace”. Daisy continued to keep house for her two unmarried brothers, till they also died, and seemed always singularly content with her lot. She did not have very much of this world’s goods but she did not hide her “alms before men” and after her death there was ample evidence found in her home that her contributions to the advancement of the Cause of Christ were many and varied. All missionary endeavours were of interest to her and she followed the progress of the Church’s Mission in Zimbabwe particularly closely.
Because of her deafness she did not often enjoy the fellowship of other believers as she would have liked. However, she read widely and acquired a large library of sound literature. In the course of her reading she extracted numerous pieces which she sent to the editors of both the Free Presbyterian and Young People’s Magazines. She had a wide circle of friends in many parts of the world with whom she corresponded regularly, though she herself was unable to travel far. She was the first person known to the writer who corresponded with Christians in Russia and she had keen interest in China as a result of reading the biographies of missionaries to that vast land in the past. She constantly prayed for the time when the Lord would again build up his Sion and the whole earth would be filled with His glory. Daisy was a woman of a prayerful spirit who delighted to withdraw to be at the Throne of Grace in private. What a rebuke this trait in her life is to those of us who are so slow to enter into our closets and shut our doors on the world and do “private business” with God!
A friend said of her, “She loved her Gaelic Bible” and it was clear that though Daisy was deaf as to natural hearing she was one who often “heard” what God spoke in His Word to those who watch daily at His gates and wait at the post of His doors. She was one who believed the promise, “They shall not be ashamed that wait for me.” Her love for her Bible as the Word of Life made her yearn that every sinner under heaven would have access to the Scriptures in their own tongue. As far as giving to the Trinitarian Bible Society was concerned, we believe it could be said “She hath done what she could” and we are convinced that every donation was steeped in prayer. But her prayers were not always at the ends of the earth. Daisy constantly wrestled for her nephews and nieces; for the Cause of Christ in the Isle of Skye but particularly for the parish of Bracadale where she lived and where her father had been such a faithful missionary and fearless witness for the Truth, not only on the ecclesiastical level but on the personal and community level also.
One feature of her life was a puzzle to this writer. She was deaf, sometimes she did not know what Psalm was being given out, yet she was in her place in the Church without fail, come wind, come weather. It reminds one of the godly lady who lived last century and was also deaf. A well-meaning friend asked her, “Why do you attend church so often, when you cannot hear a word?” The worthy lady replied, “S caomh leum bhi far a faic mi ceo na h-iobairt ag eirigh suas” (“I like to be where I can see the smoke of the sacrifice rising up”). To Daisy it was important to be with the two or three gathered in His name. The house of God was where He was wont to reveal Himself and she would be there. She could not hear the preacher but could she not hear the voice that spoke to her heart from the Word, “Fear not for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine”? Her prayerful encouragement of her minister and support for him was total. Her spirit when she heard of her minister’s mind to leave was, “We’ll miss him but we’ll not grudge him”. To our sorrow she was not present to see another minister settled in Bracadale but it is our earnest wish that her prayers for the congregation will yet be answered in his preaching being blessed to many.
She was a Free Presbyterian by conviction as well as by birth and she was never ashamed of the name nor the testimony of our Church. The assaults by the evil one on this testimony, and indeed the most recent from within the Church to destroy the witness raised in 1893, were a cause of real distress to her.
Even in her last illness when the darkest storm clouds yet gathered over her beloved Church she understood the situation clearly and, even as her strength declined, her enquiries were for the well-being of her dear Church.
In March 1989 she passed away from this world of sin and sorrow. Her mortal remains were laid to rest in the cemetery at Struan. Her soul, we truly believe, entered “the palace of the King”, where His people see Him as He is and serve him sinlessly.
(Rev.) D. J. MacDonald