Barbara Windsor: A very, very sad day
On Friday, a great star – Dame Barbara Windsor – was finally laid to rest…
On Thursday, 10 December, Dame Barbara Windsor passed away peacefully with her husband Scott Mitchell at her side. A star who bravely battled dementia in the last six years of her life, she became a powerful voice for the thousands living with the cruel condition.
The funeral took place on Friday, an intimate ceremony at London’s Golders Green Crematorium, with Ross Kemp delivering a eulogy to the screen mum he grew so close to on EastEnders.
Just weeks before her death, he revealed that Barbara had said her final words to him: ‘I want everything in life to be good for you.’
Christopher Biggins admitted he, too, was ‘ honoured’ to be amongst the mourners. Adding with a humour Barbara would no doubt have appreciated, he was sure she would have been ‘delighted’ by the ‘ horror’ over her death.
‘I wish that when we die, all of us – we had 24 hours looking down to hear what people say about us.’
‘Anna Karen is speaking about her early life, I’m speaking about the middle part of her life, and Ross is talking about that part of her life.
‘It will be very, very sad… a terrible day… but we’re all there for Scott and for her. She was very special.’
In different times, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine hundreds of friends, fans and loved ones spilling out of the church. The talented actress was much loved, and is now mourned by the whole nation.
A Londoner through and through, Barbara, who first made her name on stage, then in films including the iconic Carry Ons, found a whole new audience when she took on the role of landlady at the Queen Vic, Peggy Mitchell, in EastEnders.
Speaking for many, one soap fan wrote a simple tribute: ‘My heart is broken all over again.’