Funeral service is at St Michael & All Angels on Monday 21st October 2019 at 12pm

Eulogy: Christina Nora Clews

Mum was a wonderful, generous, giving and loving person. She loved people, and to my eternal embarrassment talked with everyone she came upon, regardless of age, creed or gender, particularly in Waitrose or Sainsburys where she would shop and sit in the coffee shops. This was such an amazing part of her personality. She loved holidays but only ones where she would meet other people, coach trips being her favourite because it meant a captive audience! I gradually came to the realisation that as far as holidays were concerned it did not make too much difference to her whether she was in the USA with my American family, a holiday in Italy or the local garden centre, as long as there were new people to get to know. As I am sure that many of you know she was a real personality and lived life on her own terms, marching to her own tune. This loving personality endured in spite of many hardships in life that she endured, an unhappy childhood in Thornaby Upon Tees where she was born, the death of her oldest son John, my brother, in 1983 in a walking accident, the death of her husband and soulmate, my dad, Brian, in 1997, from cancer, which meant she could not enjoy a long retirement with him, the loss of a stillborn grandchild Elsie meaning that she was never able to experience the joys of being a grandmother.

However, in spite of all these things she maintained a loving, caring and enthusiastic approach to life, taking part in so many things over the years and never sitting still. After my dad retired and before he died she made him participate in everything that she did, Chinese Brush Painting, Tai Chi, History of Art Courses, trips to Denman College with both him and her good friend Iris Luff who shared many, many adventures with mum over the years. My mum particularly loved her time in the Old Town WI, it gave her real meaning in her life and she was sad when it closed. I was also taken along to so many WI outings that I began to believe I was a member also! She had wanted to be a nurse but in the 1960s she met my dad and was forced to give this up as women were not permitted to have a career and be married, an unthinkable thing today, she sometimes regretted the lack of a career and this is why she so enjoyed working at BAC. Mum and I had a unique bond due to the losses in our family, but also most importantly, because she was a loving and wonderful mother to me. I had to grow up quickly after my brother’s death, to help support mum and dad but as much as I supported mum she supported me.

The best decision she ever made, she reminded me before she died, when she still had some clearer days, was our decision to live together. it meant I was there for her and she for me and my loving wife Shelley, having just married me and come from the USA, went along with this arrangement as she saw how much we needed each other as we had little wider family to be there for us. Shelley also grew to love my mother and her eccentricities. She would often follow Shelley around in the garden wanting to help and peeking through the windows for a chat. I know living with us both was mum’s greatest happiness and when she discovered she was terminally ill she cried and said that she was still having fun with Shelley and I and did not want to leave us yet.

She loved her brother Robert about whom she reminisced to me with love and affection endlessly and her sister Anne, who she sadly did not get to see as often as she would have liked. She particularly cherished her friendships and valued each and every one of you who touched her life and she loved the community of St Michaels which she also considered her family, coming here most Sundays for 40 years or more. She loved living in Beaconsfield which she considered her true home, living here for 50 years.

She also wanted to be an Angel and often asked her friends whether they would go and be an Angel with her. Well I hope that mum got be an Angel because she certainly deserved to be one and I am sure she is already chatting to everyone in Heaven already.

Mum told me to say to you that when she died she wanted you to celebrate her life in the church hall with a party so please do go and do so after this service. Mum, we will miss you so much and your quirky, unique view on life.