Mum was born and brought up in Guildford, the third of four sisters.
Most of her formative years were spent during the war because she was 16 when it broke out. She loved dancing and talked of doing the jitterbug and of being a night-time fire warden in the town centre in case of airaids.
She worked in a sweet shop and then a factory making airoplane parts for the war.


She met my father Ken who was from County Durham while on holiday in Scarborough and he moved to Guildford after they were married much to his mothers displeasure but my mother couldn’t have conceived of living anywhere else. Her family were very important to her and Guildford was in her blood for a long way back.


In 1965 we moved to her beloved house in Merrow Woods that my Father designed and built and for the next few years she worked in a hardware shop called Timothy Whites where it seems she practically ran the place and stood in for the manager when he was away - the company was very upset when she left. 
They bought their first car and we went abroad for the first time, things were looking rosy until unfortunately she was widowed 6 years later with John and I both teenagers and still at college. In spite of everything she was always supportive during the following years and made our friends welcome to the house.
Knowing that money would be tight, Guilford College (where my Father had worked) offered her a better-paid job as a technician in the homecraft department. Not surprisingly she was also very good at her new job, enjoyed it, took it seriously and was well respected. Hardworking, motivated and strong willed, I believe that given the opportunity she could have reached the top in any career that she might have chosen.


Things must have been difficult for her but she eventually started socialising again and met Charles through her love of dancing and then Chris joined our family.
They both retired when they got married, went on to have many holidays and lots of social events with friends and then when Eleanor and Laurence were born they became doting grandparents, helping me because I was working full-time but unfortunately, she was widowed again in 2004.


She lived alone with no carers apart from me but I usually described myself as her personal assistant rather than carer with her giving me lists and tasks to do for her and believe me, she kept me very busy!


She was amazing for her age and often had more energy than me although recently it was just determination motivating her to keep going even though she wasn’t feeling well. Her mind was sharp and she didn’t miss a thing, taking an interest in everything and everyone right up until the end. She always stood up for what was right even when others didn’t and even though it may not always have been in her own interest.


She was pleased to be able to celebrate her 100th birthday and get a card from the King but had never thought about her age and refused to believe that anything physically wrong with her was because of her age. Even after breaking her neck 8 years ago, she just carried on, even pressure-hosing the patio at 98!


She loved baking and was good at it. Her quiches were famous with friends and family and many of you will also have enjoyed her meringues, roulades, rum savarins or decorated iced fruit cakes for birthdays and anniversaries and in fact she had just bought all the ingredients in preparation for making her Christmas cakes and mince pies.


She was always smartly dressed with immaculate hair, kept in place with plenty of hairspray, she put makeup on and pencilled her eyebrows every day right to the end. She set very high standards for herself and expected the same in other people. Her home was well polished and her garden, manicured. She could no longer operate her well-used electric floor polisher which I considered to be a good thing as I was frightened that either her or anyone else, would slip over but she didn’t want to hear about that - her priority was having the floors as shiny as possible.


Thankyou all very much for coming, she would have appreciated that. Every one of you were important to her - her friends and family were everything to her and she always told me how she felt it was important to never lose touch with anyone and she didn’t.