I can’t stop playing last voicemail from lovely Nanna Dor
ALLISSA TELLS HOW SHE FOUND GRAN DEAD AT HER HOME
A WOMAN has told how she found her beloved grandmother dead in her own home.
Allissa Day went to check on her grandmother, Doreen Ann Day, after becoming concerned when she did not answer the phone, before discovering the 80-year-old dead in her home in Keys Street, in Chester Green, on Friday, June 10.
Mrs Day, affectionately known as Nanna Dor, leaves behind a son, two granddaughters - Allissa and her sister Emily - and a six-year-old greatgrandson, Tristan. The former seamstress had spent her whole life in Derby after being born in Walpole Street, in Chaddesden.
Allissa had been expecting to have dinner with her grandmother in the evening of Friday, June 10, but visited Mrs Day’s home at lunchtime out of concern that something was wrong. She said: “I got a suspicion that something was wrong, at about 10.30am. I gave it an hour or so as I thought she was pottering around town, but then the panic set in as she wasn’t answering her phone so I went to check on her.
“I had my own key and I found her by the bed. It’s probably the worst experience I have ever had in my life.
“I spoke to her on the Thursday
morning as she was supposed to be coming around for dinner on the Friday. I got a voicemail which she left me on the Wednesday [June 8], as she was meant to come around but didn’t as she felt a bit tired. She said ‘see you sometime, love you lots,’ and naturally I can’t stop playing it.
“She was independent and that’s how she wanted it. She always said she never wanted to be a burden and she loved doing everything herself. Only the week before she had my little boy for the day and I had to fight her off from washing the pots and doing my ironing, as she wanted to help all the time.”
Mrs Day’s cause of death was diagnosed as an aortic dissection, which is where the inner layer of the aorta, the main artery carrying blood from the heart, is torn, allowing blood into the heart. The condition can often prove fatal if blood passes through the outer aortic wall.
Prior to her sudden death, Mrs Day frequently travelled on holidays around the world, but her favourite destination was St Ives in Cornwall, where her ashes will be scattered. It is where the ashes of her late husband, Brian, were scattered in 2004 after he died aged 69.
Remembering her grandmother, Allissa, a 29-year-old housekeeper from Morley, said: “She was really sprightly, or as sprightly as an 80-year-old could be. She died suddenly and that is nice for her as she didn’t know or feel anything, but hard for everyone she left behind.
“She was like a second mum to me, right from an early age I spent so much time at her house. She used to live in Albert Road and she had a huge garden, and we had all our parties there.
“I’ve got friends from primary and secondary school that still remember her. She was an amazing woman, she always had a smile on her face. She lived life to the full, she loved her family so much, and she did anything for anybody.
“She used to go to her friends’ house every weekend and would go out to the pub with them. She had loads of holidays abroad in recent years and she absolutely loved St Ives.
“It was her favourite place, she loved it down there, we all did. We used to go most years together as a big family holiday. She loved gardening, her garden was her pride and joy.
“She used to paint everything white, I think even the poor TV got painted white once. I think she just liked it as it was bright and cheery.” Allissa and Emily, a 25-year-old pub manager who lives in Swadlincote, are now trying to raise funds to give Nanna Dor a fitting send-off via a Go Fund Me appeal. While Mrs Day did have a funeral plan, it still left around £1,000 to be paid to cover all the funeral costs. Allissa said: “The funeral plan isn’t enough to cover everything. The last time I checked, I think we’re at least about £1,000 short. So, we’re trying every which way we can to raise money. Both my sister and I are in average-paying jobs so we can’t find all of the money ourselves.”
A cremation is planned at Markeaton Crematorium today. You can find more details about the Go Fund Me appeal online.
She died suddenly and that is nice for her as she didn’t know or feel anything.
Granddaughter Allissa