Mum was clearly popular with boys and girls alike and Harry Birchall was her last boyfriend before Dad. Soon after this photo was taken in 1939, Harry was killed riding his motor bike. Although I never heard this story from Mum, Dad remembers that she was really shook up. She asked for three months’ leave from her Sunday duties of teaching and playing the organ in the morning service. But Dad remembers that she was soon back at church and throwing herself into the thick of things as she drew comfort and relief from her grief by her involvement again in the life of the church family.

That doesn’t surprise us. Mum was a social person and extroverted. She drew strength and comfort from being with people. She liked to have her family around her. She didn’t necessarily have to be doing things, or organising them. She just liked to be present and to be present with them.