Thank you for all your kind words to my last post they did give me some comfort at a very difficult time.
Yesterday was mum's funeral and we had a celebration of her life service. I think mum had a word with mother nature and sorted the weather because the rain had stopped and the sun shone warmly and the icey winds had ceased. Thank you mum.With the help of my three brothers and dad I wrote the tribute and and I would like to share some of it with you. Hope you don't mind.
Mum was born in 1938 in
Stayley Bridge, Denton, to Stanley and Annie Pollitt. She had two older sisters, Annie (sadly died in January also from dementia) and Brenda, a younger sister, Jean and two younger brothers Eric and Brian.
At the tender age of 11 the family
moved to Blackpool where mum attended Claremont School. On leaving
school she went to college to learn baking and confectionery but didn't like
the science so she took a different path and went into nursing. She worked at Wesham
and Rossall hospital.
Mum loved going dancing at the Winter Gardens and Blackpool Tower Ballroom where she gained a
bronze and a silver medal for dancing. On Valentine’s Day 1958 she met Stanley. Love blossomed and they married on 8 October 1960.
They had four children Carol,
Stanley, Alan and Ian.
Mum enjoyed the family
camping holidays first down south to Cornwall, Devon and surrounding areas. However
she didn't enjoy the one and only holiday to Wales. It was cut short by howling
gales and lashing rain. Many tents were blown away during the night. All our things were packed up the following morning and the holiday was continued at home.
After that, camping holidays were taken around Scotland in a trailer tent and as
we (the children) grew up mum and dad worked together
converting a transit van into a caravanette so there was more living space on
holidays. When us children had all left home they enjoyed their first holiday
abroad to Lake Garda, Italy. Eventually they decide that they liked Belamadina,
in Spain and went many times, so often
in fact that the staff got to know them by name and welcomed them each visit.
For their 40th wedding
anniversary they enjoyed a cruise around the Canary Islands even though mum got sea sick just looking at a boat.
Mum didn't always enjoy good health and had two artificial
knees fitted, a curved spine that gave her a lot of discomfort. Heart problems
which resulted in valve replacements/repairs and then a pacemaker. In later
years she developed the cruel disease Alzheimer’s.
As we (the children) were growing
up mum didn't go out to work because dad was a shift worker,
so she worked from home working for various factories, making up blouses, tea
cosies, hemming towels and made huge kipper ties (during the 1970’s). Afterwards she worked
for herself making soft toys. This was a proper family business as we and dad were involved one way or another. Mum would sell the
toys to local shops and individuals and then the government changed the rules on
health and safety she had to give it up.
Mum was a great cook, cooking everything from scratch. Her Christmas cakes were the best – using a
recipe from her collage days. This lead on to being asked to make wedding and
other celebration cakes and this became her new interest for a while.
Mum enjoyed all kinds of crafts but
knitting was her favourite. She learnt to knit at the age of 7. She would knit
at home, in the car, and she even took it on holiday. She would have several
garments on the go and swap from one to the other. She had a dream of owning
her own a wool shop one day and eventually her dream was realised and her shop was called, “Vogue Wools”. Mum was often seen reading a knitting pattern but never a novel until later years.
Mum continued knitting up until
last summer when she cast off her stitches and put down her needles for the
last time.
Mum also had a passion for
gardening and could make anything grow. She loved to grow new varieties of
vegetables that you couldn't buy in the shops. When the garden wasn't big enough
mum and dad got an allotment and worked it together. They
joined the local Horticultural Society and showed their vegetables and mum also entered the home crafts section with her baking.
When working on the allotment became
too much, she continued to going with dad watching him work and
chatting with the other allotment holders, she also enjoyed the peace
and quiet and the warm sunshine on her face.
All of Mum’s craft skills,
the knitting, gardening, baking, sewing, and business mind, she passed on to us
the children in one way or another.
Mum was a loving and
devoted wife and mother she also loved her eight grandchildren and will be
greatly missed by all her family and friends.
L also read a poem by an unknown author
Something Beautiful Remains.
The tide recedes but leaves behind
bright seashells on the shore
The sun goes down, but gentle
warmth still lingers on the land.
The music stops, and yet it echoes
on in sweet refrains......
For every joy that passes,
something beautiful remains.
Carolx
