Tributes to former nurse
ARETIRED nurse who looked after hundreds of Valley patients has died suddenly at the age of 64.
Marion Kay trained as a cadet at Rossendale General Hospital as a 16-yearold and, apart from short breaks following the birth of her two sons, worked there until the hospital closed some 12 years ago.
She spent most of her career looking after elderly people on a geriatric ward and was then one of the first workers on a new nurse-led rehabilitation unit.
The grandmother-ofone loved her work, cherishing an official thankyou letter for never having time off, and was popular with both patients and relatives for her unfailing cheerfulness.
Marion suffered a fatal heart attack at her home in Mercer Crescent, Helmshore, on the Thursday before Christmas.
Her devastated husband Mervyn, a former editor of the Free Press’s sister paper the Accrington Observer, said it was ‘so sudden and unexpected’.
He said: “We are all in a state of shock.
“She had just been for a Christmas lunch with her best friend when they talked nostalgically about their happy times at the hospital.
“I brought her in home in high spirits but within half an hour she had collapsed.
“Marion knew everybody – shopping trips often took hours as she stopped to chat to people.
“She was generous to a fault and one of those few people who genuinely put others before themselves.”
Marion, nee Clarke, was born in Dublin but moved to England at a young age with her parents, sisters and brothers, living in Queen Anne Street and then Park Street, Haslingden, until her marriage.
She had short spells as a childminder and an Asda worker, and after Rossendale General closed she worked at the Royal Blackburn Hospital and Pendle Community Hospital before ill health forced an early retirement.
Marion leaves her husband Mervyn, sons Christopher and Simon, a grandson Ethan on whom she doted, sisters Anne and Pat and brothers Maurice and Gerard.
Her funeral service will be held at 10.15am on Monday, January 7 with a Requiem Mass at St Mary’s RC Church, Haslingden, followed by cremation at 11.40am at Accrington Crematorium.
The funeral is being arranged by Hyndburn Funeral Services in Accrington.