Our Mum, Anita passed away in Florence Nightingale Hospice on 24th June 2024, aged 90 years.

She will be dearly missed by all her family and relations.

This is our Tribute to her:

Our Mum, Anita also known as Ann, was born in 1933 on August the 16th in Southwark, City of London.

Her mum was called Annie and her dad Leslie, and they lived near Elephant & Castle at the time she was born. 

She had one older brother called Leslie who was named after his father. Being 5 years older they were never all that close but always kept in touch. (Sadly, he passed with a heart attack when he was only 50).

When growing up she spent much of her time with her first cousins Lois and Brenda as they were girls of a similar age, and all got on well together. 

Mum was only 6 years old at the start of the war in 1939 and whilst her brother was evacuated in 1940 due to the bombing her mum decided she was too young to go away and kept her at home. In fact, mum said she became her mother’s eyes during this time as her mum suffered with poor eyesight due to ulcers.

One of the war memories that Annie, her mum shared with us was that one-time she was on a bus with Anita when the air raid sirens went off - the driver then decided the best course of action was to keep going but she recalled it was all very frightening as they could hear the bombs starting to drop behind them.   

At this time, mum lived in a council house with her mum, dad and brother in the Catford area of London where she attended her first schools. She always said she enjoyed school and in particular participating in sport. 

By the end of the war her mum and dad moved the family to Northolt where they managed to buy their own semi-detached house. 

Annie, mum’s mum was very influential in her life and persuaded her to go to a Pitmans college after school to study shorthand and typing so she would acquire a useful skill and be able to have a career as a secretary. This she did and managed to find secretarial work at both Wimpey (where she met her closest friend Allwyn) and then at the head office of Lloyds. 

Mum met her future husband Bill, our Dad at a dance in Farnham common after mum had gone there with her friend Allwyn. It so happened that Allywn knew somebody who worked at Llyons tea houses who held dances in Farnham Common. We are not sure how Dad ended up there as Farnham Common wasn’t exactly local to either of them, but they must have hit it off as they started dating and eventually got married in February 1954 when mum was 20. Dad always called Anita Ann and from then on, they were known to most of the Family as Ann and Bill.

After getting married they lived with mum’s mum and dad in Northolt so they could save money to buy a house which they finally did in 1958. This house was a semi-detached house in Penn, Bucks ‘number 37 the lawns’ where they spent all their married life and raised their three girls – Frances (born 1961), Melanie (born 1962) and Alison (born 1965).

As her daughters were growing up, initially she was a stay-at-home mum but eventually she managed to get some part time cleaning jobs to earn some of her own pocket money. 

About this time, she decided to learn to drive and ended up successfully taking her driving test when she was 9 months pregnant with Alison. She took her test in a little mini only to find that Dad went and bought a big Ford Zephyr shortly afterwards. Undaunted she was soon driving it with no problem. In fact, she loved driving and wasn’t fazed in any way as to where she had to drive. She encouraged all her daughters to learn to drive as soon as they were old enough as she understood the freedom and independence it would give them.

When her daughters were old enough, she decided to go back and do some part time secretarial work at RHM in High Wycombe – but always made sure her hours enabled her to arrive home before they returned from school. Then as her girls got older, she was able to become a full-time secretary at RHM and ended up staying there for around 20 years in total. 

One thing all the family agree on was that she was a good cook, and they have fond memories of how she thoroughly enjoyed preparing and sharing meals with everyone. 

Mum’s preference in music was pop and easy listening like Babara Streisand, Tom Jones, Johnny Matthis, Take That and Abba and loved to play her own vinyl records as often as she could. She didn’t share Dad’s taste in heavy rock music, but they were able to find common ground as in later years they used to go to the swan theatre in High Wycombe to watch and listen to an Eagles tribute band called the illegal Eagles.  

As a family they would visit Kath, Dad’s eldest sister where they enjoyed playing music and having fun and also Dad’s younger sister Pat and her family where they often held parties. 

She always remained close to her mum who came to live nearby and helped to look after girls in the school holidays when she was working.

One of the neighbours had a canal boat moored at Marsworth, near Tring and Mum and her family regularly spent weekends on the canal with the neighbours and their children who were similar ages to Mum and Dad’s.

Our mum was a sun lover and enjoyed many holidays abroad with her family to places like Majorca, Spain, Portugal and Florida over the years. 

She also loved spending money shopping for her home, her garden and clothes.

Between their three daughters mum and dad had 6 grandchildren Leanne, Charlotte, Sarah, Kylie, Martin and Bradley to which they have been very supportive and good grandparents. She loved being with her grandchildren and frequently took them out to places. In particular, she enjoyed taking them to the pantomime.

When she was in her mid-fifties she was offered a redundancy package by her employer, RHM which she decided to take. She then did temporary secretarial work until she secured a permanent position at Amersham International where she worked until she retired.

After her mum and her cousin Lois passed away, Lois’s daughter Janice continued to stay in touch with mum and provided her with regular family updates which she really appreciated.

Unfortunately, soon after mum retired, she had a serious stroke and to dad’s credit he then retired and became her full-time carer for the next 25 years and more. Despite their situation they continued to try and enjoy life and joined two stroke clubs which they went to every week, attended Christmas parties and barbecues, and also went on holidays with them to places like Warner's holiday camps and trips to seaside towns. 

To simply sum up our Mum, Anita – what was most important to her during her life was her family, her home and her garden – she was very particular, hardworking and had a good sense of humour and liked to laugh – she was always enthusiastic about going out (even after her stroke) whether it was shopping, eating out, visiting friends or new adventures – and that is how we remember her.