Extraordinary LIVES
MY MOTHER was a most determined woman. She married my father, Denis, when they were both 19 and, at one stage, they had three children under the age of five: my older sister Jasmine, my younger brother Raymonde and me in the middle. Though my parents were far from well off, my mother wanted us to have a good education, so she worked hard at menial jobs to earn the money to send us to private schools. When Dad suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 44, my mother changed. Before she had been shy, but she suddenly threw herself into all kinds of activities. She went to study at a college of further education, where she passed exams that allowed her to get an office job in the wages department of a large company. She also became a Samaritan, enrolled in the Open University,
ran a slimming club and fundraised for charities. Her mission in life was to do her best to help people less fortunate than herself. She moved to a mobile home site where, unlike her, most of the residents were retired. For several years, she hired the community centre to serve tea and cakes to anyone who was feeling lonely on Christmas Day. She bought a touring caravan and joined a camping club — she loved travelling with her pet dog to beautiful places around the country and socialising with all the other campers and caravaners. When she retired, at the age of 60, she went back to college to gain a diploma as a Montessori teacher and opened her own successful nursery school. She struggled to pay the high rent on the premises, so took a cleaning job in the evenings in order to pay her staff. My mother was a proud, private person and though so generous to others, would not accept help of any kind. She would not even go to the doctor, dentist or optician. Family was so precious to her: she had five grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and, to her joy in her last months, she welcomed the birth of her great-great-granddaughter.