MUM

Thank you all for coming.

Today we remember and celebrate the life of my mother, Margaret Brown, or as she may have been known to you, Peggy.

Mum was born in 1930 and died a few weeks ago age 92.  A long life where she lived through some tumultuous world events and huge changes both societal and technological.

In 1930, the year she was born, 

- Only around 60% of UK homes had electricity

- The jet engine was patented by Frank Whittle

- First basic analogue computer was built at MIT

- Travel from England to Australia would take 100 days by ship, air travel between the two countries didn’t commence until 1935 and took 12 days.  My trip took 22 hours, which still seemed very long.

(Also, the year chocolate chip cookies were invented.)

I looked these things up on my mobile phone using Google (which started in 1998).  In 1930 only the very rich had a home phone line.

Mum experienced a great deal of change in her 92 years and, like most things she did, she took it her stride.  If she did something she embraced it with 100% commitment.  Whether this was the various clubs and societies she was in, including Youth Club, Land Rangers, Mothers Union, Women’s’ Institute, or playing table tennis for Surrey.

Or her passion for amateur dramatics and lawn bowls.

She gave generously of her time and talents and was an exceptional organiser whether this was organising bowls tours, bowls fixtures, jumble sales, dinner and dances, or other social events. 

Her family was very important to Mum.  Two sons, four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.  Two of her grandchildren are here today – Ben and Rachael.  The others would have liked to be here and are thinking of her.

Mum visited us in Australia a number of times in both Melbourne and Brisbane.  In addition, she really enjoyed the peace and tranquillity of our holiday house on a deserted stretch of Queensland beach, which she described as her idea of heaven.  She got to know her three grandsons much better when staying with us for six weeks at a time.  Two of them returned the compliment by staying with her in Gloucester while they worked and travelled, and got spoilt rotten.

Her great grandson also stayed with her for a few weeks whilst on holiday which she was thrilled about.  Sadly, mainly due to Covid, she only met her great granddaughter via Skype.  A 92-year-old woman and a two-year-old girl talking at each other on a computer with neither having the slightest clue what the other was saying, is a something worth seeing.  They both enjoyed it which is the main thing.

One of Mum’s passions was amateur dramatics.  She got involved with this as a teenager at Youth Club in London, carried on in Surrey and continued when we moved to Gloucester where she was in various amateur dramatic groups, including being one of the LADS, one of the GODS, and in the St Barnabas Players.  She won numerous awards including a County Best Actress award of which she was rightly proud.

One of my enduring memories of her amateur dramatics was helping her learn her lines.  This typically involved Mum playing her character and me playing everyone else in as many strange and varied accents and voices as I could conjure up.  None of this phased her; I couldn’t trip her up.  She was always word perfect due to her phenomenal memory and natural talent.  The awards she won were well deserved.

Another of Mum’s passions was lawn bowls, which both her and Dad took up when we moved to Gloucester, joining the Sir Thomas Rich’s Bowls Club at the school that both Philip and I attended.  Bowls became a big part of her life.  Not just playing but seriously involved in the successful running of the club.  This spanned a 21-year period where she catered for the teas, organised bowls tours, dinner and dances and other social events. In addition, she was Club Secretary for 9 of those years organising fixtures and so forth.  This was followed by being County Bowls Secretary for 12 years, which is a major role and commitment.

However, I think her greatest bowls achievement was as a player.  She became  a good player bowling right-handed but started to struggle with wrist pain.  The doctor determined that she had broken a bone in her wrist many years before and a cyst had developed such that she could not hold the bowl. 

She had an operation but the right wrist was still not strong enough to play.  Mum didn’t want to give up playing so she switched to playing left-handed and became very good playing with the wrong hand.  This was typical of her determination and commitment.

Finally, I know Mum would want me to thank my brother Phil for all he did for Mum since Dad died and particularly in the last few years when she needed more support.  She described you as her rock. 

From Mum and from me – thank you Phil.

Mum – you had a long, happy, busy and fun packed life.  We will all miss you.