Extraordinary LIVES
MY STEPMOTHER GRACE
GRACE was born in Winnipeg, Canada, and came to England with her family in 1930, when she was 16. She trained as a nurse in London. During the war she was transferred to a hospital in Kent, but as she was eager to help with the war effort, she joined the Army’s nursing corps. In one of the more harrowing incidents she was involved in, she treated soldiers badly injured when the Luftwaffe bombed the train transporting them. After the war, Grace cared for children at an orthopaedic hospital in Oxford, before moving to work at Birmingham’s Royal Orthopaedic Hospital. Some years later, she reached the pinnacle of her career when appointed Matron of the Bromsgrove Cottage Hospital in Worcestershire. She worshipped at the Baptist Church in Bromsgrove, where my father, Reverend L.J.B. Cooper, was minister (as well as chaplain of the local hospitals). He was a widower, while Grace had never been married. They met in 1968 and married two years later. She was delighted to suddenly acquire a big family — four stepchildren and nine
step-grandchildren. We all loved her, and she was a loving companion for Dad. Like every true hospital matron, Grace was a no-nonsense woman and didn’t suffer fools gladly. But she was devoted to her work and believed that the patient always came first. She didn’t care for small talk, being more interested in topics, such as current affairs. One curious exception was snooker, which in her Canadian accent she called ‘snucker’. She couldn’t resist watching it on TV.
Grace and my father had a happy marriage for almost 20 years — often travelling together to Canada — until he passed away in 1989. By then, Grace was 75 and long retired. She kept up her love of classical music with visits to the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. And she never stopped attending services at Dad’s church. In later years, after she’d had a leg amputated due to circulation problems, she still lived as independently as possible. It was a proud moment for her when, in 2018, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the NHS, she attended a special event at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital where she had worked. Our relationship was strong to the end and she recently welcomed her first step-greatgreat-grandchild. Her passing befitted this lovely lady. She just closed her eyes and was reunited with my father.
▪ GRACE COOPER, born July 21, 1914, died August 1, 2020, aged 106.