Brave battler with a heart of gold who lived life to the full
ALWAYS UP FOR FUN, AND THE FIRST PERSON ON THE DANCEFLOOR, LYNN WAS ALSO THE MOST LOVING OF MAMS
THE bright pink Cath Kidston luggage label attached to the handle of the coffin said it all.
“Lynn Simpson. Destination Heaven: Let’s get the party started…” The Middlesbrough mum-ofthree loved her holidays and, more than anything, she loved life: “Mum made the most of every minute,” says daughter, Vicky.
And while lung cancer finally took it from her after a two-and-half year battle, Lynn remained courageous and fun-loving until the end. “Mum was a battler and, while she had a life to live, she lived it.” Lynn was one of two daughters – sister Elizabeth sadly died from cancer 18 years ago – of Sylvia and Jack Oliver.
She spent her early years growing up in Middlesbrough and remembered playing in the bombed-out houses with her friend, Jeanette.
Lynn left school at 15 and got her first job at Shipman’s Bakery, enjoying nights out after work, joking it was her way of “supporting the local businesses”.
“Mum was a very social person,” says Vicky. “She’d often go into town on her own, and sit and have a cuppa, chatting to people as they passed by.”
Lynn married Vicky and brother Gary’s dad, Richard, at 18 and, although they later divorced, they remained good friends.
She went on to meet the man she described simply as her ‘soulmate’, Martin ‘Scally’ Holloway, whom she was with for 38 years, and had another son, Martin. While she had jobs later at the Dragonara Hotel and Chipchase Chippy, for many years she was a stay-athome mum, taking the children for trips to Saltburn and Redcar where they’d play on the beach and look forward to a bag of chips, or winkling at Robin Hood’s Bay.
“She was a very loving mam. You couldn’t leave the house without a hug and a kiss, but she had boundaries – you never missed school,” adds Vicky.
Lynn, who has two grandchildren, Mikey and Eva, was well known in Linthorpe village where she’d lived the last 30 years, cycling around on her pushbike and enjoying nights out in the local pubs.
She got the cruise bug after her first voyage to celebrate her 50th, notching up 15 in total, but she also looked forward to girlie holidays in Benidorm each October with nieces Sharon Willett, Caroline West and Lesley Mather.
“Lynn was always the first one out and the last one in,” smiles Sharon. “She was the oldest of us but she would be the first one up in the morning, the first one on the dance floor, and she was the one buying the lilo and the rubber ring ‘for fun’. “Her holidays were her time.” Humour and courage went hand in hand for Lynn, and she used both when she first began treatment for cancer and especially when, after hopes she was beating it, she was given just months to live. Even then she exceeded all expectations, amazing medics and nurses, one of whom called her “my little miracle”. Remaining strong, Lynn organised her own funeral, choosing everything from the colour lilac for the lining of her coffin which the funeral staff wore for their cravats too, to the readings and the music – including Tina Turner’s Simply the Best, which was always guaranteed to get her on the dancefloor and Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now.
And she asked Sharon’s 13-yearold son Jack, to whom she was close and who played her favourite Gene Pitney songs during ‘mystery tours’ in the car, to do a special job – walking her out from her home before the cortege took her planned route, past her favourite pub and stopping off at the chippy where she worked.
“Mum also asked for her ashes to be scattered in the sun,” smiles Vicky.
“One last holiday.”
You couldn’t leave the house without a hug and a kiss, but she had boundaries – you never missed school Lynn’s daughter,
Vicky