Mum was a woman with an endless capacity for friendship. She maintained relationships that began in school and continued forever and gathered new friends throughout her long and happy life. There were the friends that mum and dad shared from their earliest years together until one by one old age took them away. Some they played cards with, some they dined out with, some they played golf with and all of them loved mum.

When my brother and I were teenagers mum secretly applied for a job with the health service as a clerical officer. Dad thought mum wouldn’t last long at work. How wrong he was. She became a valuable member of the family planning clinic in Ladbroke Grove, organising the doctors’ rotas, collating statistics and greeting patients when they were short staffed at the reception desk. In her work, as in her friendships, she was the soul of discretion and secrets were safe with her. She was also great fun and totally reliable and always looked a million dollars – which she did on a shoestring.

As a mum she was more of a friend than a parent and I could confide in her, gossip with her, ask her advice (she never tried to give me advice, which is rare in a parent) and laugh with her.

There are so many things I want to tell mum. Things I wish I’d asked mum and advice I still want from mum. I know how lucky I (and my brother and all her family and friends) were to have her with us for so many fabulous, fun filled years. May her memory be for a blessing.