Glamorous and popular, Lisa always looked a million dollars
RAISING TWO DAUGHTERS WHILE RUNNING TWO BUSINESSES DEMONSTRATED LISA’S BOUNDLESS ENERGY WHICH SHE COMBINED WITH A HEART OF GOLD AND A WARM SMILE
PEOPLE’S first impressions of Lisa Cywinski were of someone who was impossibly glamorous, with a warm smile that was as big as her heart. Lisa, who was born and raised in Rhyl but went on to settle in Prestatyn for more than two decades with her former partner Graham, 56, and their two daughters, India and Scarlett, was a family person, and an incredibly hard worker. She was someone who took real pride in her appearance, but her beauty was much more than just skin deep. She loved a party and she loved people, never forgetting a name, and was adored by all who knew her in her local community. “Lisa was fun loving, just a really nice person,” Graham says. “You couldn’t take her out anywhere without loads of people stopping to chat. She had a real sense of joy and glamour, and my favourite memories of her are probably her celebrating Christmas and holidays with our lovely girls. She was one of those people who could buy a dress for £25, customise it and then walk into a ball or a party looking like a million dollars. She certainly made a lasting impression.” Lisa was the eldest of four siblings, coming before Estelle, Amber and Jordan, and the quartet always remained close. She was also close with her four half-sisters and stepbrother on her father’s side. She worked at Kings nightclub in Rhyl, and then as an account manager for Christian Dior perfume, but met Graham, her partner of more than 20 years, while training to be a financial advisor. She worked in banking for many years, before realising her dream of opening her own business, Wedding Bliss, in Prestatyn. And if that and raising India and Scarlett, now 22 and 20, wasn’t enough, she also opened and ran a seasonal café on the seafront at Prestatyn. “Lisa was a very proactive person,” Graham recalls. “She was bouncy with a load of energy, which in some ways was born of the difficult things we had to live through after setting up home together. “Scarlett was actually a twin, but we tragically lost the girls’ brother Harvey at just three months old. Both the twins were very poorly when they were born and we thought we might lose them both. Harvey had a condition called Type 1 Spinal Muscular Atrophy. “Not long after this, Lisa was diagnosed with breast cancer. She battled the disease bravely for two years, and thankfully it never came back, although the fear was always there. Lisa just wanted to watch her children grow up. “India now works for the Stroke Association of Wales, while Scarlett is studying at college. They have grown up to be such lovely people and I know how proud of them Lisa was.” In more recent years Lisa had suffered a series of falls, resulting in a double brain haemorrhage last July that saw her undergo an operation in March to insert a titanium plate in her skull. After suffering seizures, she was taken by Air Ambulance to the Royal Stoke University Hospital on Mother’s Day, after Scarlett who had been to deliver some flowers, realised she was seriously ill. Tragically, just over two weeks later, Lisa passed away. “Due to the threat of coronavirus, the girls couldn’t say goodbye to their mum in person,” Graham says. “That was very difficult, but we choose to remember instead the 250-plus people who lined the high street in Prestatyn and broke into applause as her funeral cortege went passed. “Lisa touched so many lives in the short time she was here, and she will never be forgotten.”
Lisa touched so many lives in the short time she was here, and she will never be forgotten
Graham, Lisa’s former partner