The obituary notice of Winifred Winnie HEZZLEWOOD

Mum survived cancer, twice. She suffered enormously with pain in her joints for years and years before a diagnosis was found. Yet I have no memory of her suffering affecting us in any way. We were mostly ignorant of what she was going through. She kept it from us.

It seems to me that she spent her married life in isolation; isolated from her beloved brother Clifford, from other family members, from old and new friends as sheemigrated all over the world, not to mention the social isolationimposed by her marriage and then the imposed isolation of living in a remote and lonely lockkeepers cottage. She had a difficult life, it seems to me, and fate gave a cruel blow to force her to spend her last years in further isolation due to the several strokes which left her with impaired speech and language and hearing.It says a lot about my Mum that if asked what one thing we remember most about her, we say its her sense of humour and herlaughter. Infectious, hearty, sincere and at times unstoppable! Like her.

I have heard people describe mum's achievements in life - she was a devoted and loving wife and mother, she did some painting and knitting, she was a good dressmaker, she followed her husband and supported him in his career. This says nothing about her real achievements in surviving what would put most of us in a sanitorium! She moved house, not just from town to town, but from country to country. And not just once, but FIVE times. And this with three young children, one of whom was mentally handicapped. She lived in mobile homes, rented apartments, rented houses, found us schools, doctors, friends, made new friends herself, then left them and had to start all over again. She did this with no support from family or friends but carried the responsibility of resettlement totally alone, while my father got on with the business of earning a living. She faced real and frightening hostility in her new adopted countries because of her mentally handicapped son, my brother Clive.Neighbours threatened to have him sent to a home. She was shunned and neighbours once friends turned their backs on her.

While we were all still under 9 years old, Mum went to college, nightschool, qualified as a teacher and found herself a job.

Where do you begin to describe another's life? How much do we know of what was in her heart and her mind throughout her life, when all we see is what she shows us? Lets us see? There was a lot to my mum and she led a rather amazing life. And that's only the parts we know of. I'm going to write here some of the things I think it's important to remember, and which should have been her eulogy instead of the brief and inadequate words spoken by a stranger at her funeral.

Mum lived through the war. No different in that respect to others of her generation, but Mum spent it in London. Her descriptions of events during that time are coloured by her personality. She gives us images of dashing for trains in hairnets and curlers, painting lines down the backs of legs as substitutes for stockings, dancing halls,big bandsand flirting, being someone with somewhere to go, and loving every minute. How different I wonder was the reality. She made it all sound so glamorous!

My lovely Mum who I miss very much. But im sure she is with us all in spirit and is watching over her two grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
One of the most memorable things about my mum is her laugh! Once she started she couldnt stop! Then we would all be in tears of laughter with her.
Nothing can ever replace her. She was precious!