Granny has died peacefully at the fantastic age of 90, leaving two children, three grandchildren and seven great grandchildren behind to carry on her legacy. I am very sad that she has gone but I know it was her time to go. I loved her very much, as I know everybody here did too. Thank you for sending me your thoughts, feelings and stories over the last week, which have helped me to say the following in memory of granny today, and in celebration of her life.
What comes over so strongly in all the conversations and messages I have had about granny was her incredible selflessness. She always put other people before herself and was simply a very very caring person. Both Dad and Philippa have told me what a wonderful mum she was, always there for them, always concerned that they were ok. Everybody I have spoken to talks about granny’s genuine modesty and her caring nature. She cared for many people during her life including her mother-in-law for many years, which by all accounts was not the easiest of jobs, but she was loyal and devoted all the same.
She looked after grandpa so lovingly in his last years, and later on, after grandpa had died, she went to stay with mum’s father to help him convalesce after his hip operation. I went to visit during that time and grandpa was obviously being very well looked after and very happy. I remember thinking in my romantic young mind how brilliant and perfect it would be if they married!?
So, granny was a great carer of people. She was sweet, she was gentle, she was kind and she was an easy person to be with. But she was also fun – Nic, my husband, said that during the short time he knew her he found her to be ‘kind and selfless and often had a sparkle and a grin’. I always had a good laugh with granny. She had huge empathy but she also had a great sense of humour, and never took herself too seriously. Originally from from Liverpool there were definite glimmers of Liverpudlian spirit in her make-up. Despite what she may have said about herself she was sharp, shrewd and clever. Much more than she ever gave herself credit for.
In fact, on talking to the family about her younger years it transpires that she was known as the ‘clever one in the family’. She did well at school and went on to have various jobs in Liverpool before moving to Criccieth in Wales where she lived with Nina and Gill, during the war .There she worked for Barclays Bank and later for a firm called Super Marine Craft which was building Air Sea Rescue craft. Grandpa was stationed there teaching the RAF to drive, and so the story goes, he walked her home with the help of his pen torch one particular evening in the blackout! And so began granny’s life as a devoted and loving wife and mother.
From what I have been told, granny was a lively-minded, energetic young mother and wife, interested in current affairs and politics and literature and music as well as the wellbeing of her family. Gill remembers her being very interested in healthy eating and inspiring
her to bake her own wholemeal bread. I’m very glad that she didn’t become too evangelical about healthy eating as the years went on or we grandchildren may never have enjoyed her delicious and unrivalled rice puddings!
I loved going to stay with granny when I was little. She always made you the centre of attention, was so interested in everything you had to say, put you on a pedestal, and made you feel so good about yourself. All her many friends would flock round to say hello. She would make sure your bed was toasty warm and comfortable and generally made life cosy. I used to love the ritual of walking down to the seafront in order to ‘take the sea air’, rewarded of tea and cake when we got home. Lucy and Joanna remember
loving her cups of tea though they wouldn’t drink tea anywhere else! She just made things nice in the way only a granny can.
There is lots more I could say about granny. She was friendly and popular, quiet and wise, devoted and loyal, genuinely interested in the world and in people. She led a straight forward life and only ever gave out love and happiness.
Kate, November 2004
KEATS
Can death be sleep, when life is but a dream,
And scenes of bliss pass as a phantom by?
The transient pleasures as a vision seem,
And yet we think the greatest pain’s to die.
How strange it is that man on earth should roam,
And lead a life of woe, but not forsake
His rugged path; nor dare he view alone
His future doom which is but to awake.