A Tribute to Lynne by her Brother, Richard Before I pay tribute to Lynne, I would like to say a couple of things. Firstly, the medical care and attention Lynne has received since she was diagnosed with her illness, almost exactly two years ago, has been nothing short of outstanding. Her medical team (and it has been a team as there are a lot of them: consultants, doctors, nurses and auxiliary staff), covered three hospitals, The Churchill in Oxford, Wycombe General and Stoke Mandeville, have been totally dedicated to Lynne’s treatment. The NHS is often maligned in the press, but in our family’s experience, Lynne’s treatment and care has been faultless. Credit, where credit is due. I am also not going to let this opportunity pass, without heaping as much praise as I can on Lynne’s husband, David. He has been involved in managing Lynne’s programme over the last two years in every waking minute and has been totally devoted to Lynne since the first day he met her, at the age of 18. If there is ever a British Empire Medal for love and devotion, I want to be the first person to put forward his name. And now, about Lynne, my big, Big Hearted Sister. Lynne was born on April 1st 1948 – just 2½ years after the end of World War II. She was delivered by a midwife, called Nurse Bagshaw. Dad always described her as a bit of a battleaxe, but she was very good at her job. When Mum was in the advanced stages of labour, Nurse Bagshaw firmly instructed Dad to boil copious amounts of water for the birth. Dad couldn’t understand why this was needed, but did as he was told, as Nurse Bagshaw wasn’t the sort of person to question. Having attended the births of both my daughters, I can confirm that there is no need at all for copious amounts of boiling water; she was just trying to keep Dad occupied and out of the way..... I don’t know what happened during Lynne’s very early years, as I wasn’t there, but I do vaguely remember us sharing a twin pushchair, which was great fun, as Lynne was always very entertaining to a baby boy. One notorious incident, which demonstrated Lynne’s curious and adventurous nature, occurred when Mum walked us both up to the jewellers in the high street in Solihull (we all called it the village, because in those days it was). Mum was taking a watch in to be repaired and whilst she spoke to the lady behind the counter, she was distracted from us children. When she eventually turned around, Lynne was nowhere to be seen, but Mum did notice through the glazed door to the shop, that a large crowd was gathering outside, entertained by something in the shop window. Mum then noticed that the door at the back of the window was ajar and found Lynne entertaining the crown in the street whilst she played with the jewellery and tried on the watches. When we were a little bit older, we discovered the joys of having our own transport. Lynne had a push scooter and I had a tricycle. I always thought her scooter was far too girlie, with it’s small wheels and small handlebars; whereas my tricycle had three big wheels and big handlebars – and brakes. My tricycle was much faster than Lynne’s scooter, but on a journey from A to B, Lynne always got there first. This is because at every turn (tricycles being inherently unstable), I would tip over, fall off and graze my knees. We both used to love to scooter and tricycle round to the house next door, where Mrs Burdett lived. To us she was known as Auntie Burdett and made wonderful home-made bread and cakes. I loved the hot bread straight out of the oven (usually giving me tummy ache), whereas Lynne loved to lick the spoon of the raw cake mixture. Much later, when I was sixteen, I also had a scooter; but mine was a Lambretta ..... I remember the two of us walking up to the church every Sunday afternoon for Sunday School. I don’t remember much about the actual Sunday School, but I vividly remember us calling in to the Bon Bon sweet shop on our way home to spend our pocket money (known as our Saturday sixpence – 6d in those days). I always used to have a Barretts Sherbet Fountain; Lynne would have either Palma Violets or Love Hearts (all still made today). There is a huge amount of our childhood I don’t remember, but I remember each and every one of our family holidays; in Thorpeness, Salcombe, Trebetheric, Polzeath, Majorca, and France..... even donkey rides on the beach at Weston super Mare, where we both had hand kitted woollen swimming costumes......... (no one under the age of 60 will understand poignancy of those tortuous childrens garments). Lynne used to love making circles of neat sand castles, whereas I would specialise in holes – deep holes I could get in. But we would always join forces on the tide race, to build a really big sand castle at the water’s edge, with turrets and a moat and large walls to keep the sea out as the tide came in. We never tired of this challenge, every day of our holidays. It’s fair to say that Mum and Dad found the transition from the 1950’s to the 1960’s something of a challenge and culture shock. We went from Lonnie Donegan with his skiffle group and Perry Como, almost overnight to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who. We were teenagers, which made it doubly difficult for Mum and Dad and I think they felt that if they ignored it long enough it might all go away..... It didn’t! I remember Lynne and me walking into the village on Saturday mornings to listen to the latest hits in the record shop on Station Road; where you could stand in booths and listen through headphones without actually buying. It was very trendy. One day, I remember Lynne thought a great injustice had been done and she decided to tackle Mum about it. I was not at all confident of a successful outcome, but Lynne decided to challenge Mum about it downstairs. I sat at the top of the stairs to listen (like all children do when they want to overhear their parent’s conversations). The first thing Lynne asked Mum was that she wanted to wear tights, rather than long white socks. That got a No! ....... Next she asked if she could have a pair of jeans (as all her friends wore them). That got a resounding No as well (jeans were for cowboys). At this point I was praying she wouldn’t follow up with the third question, which was ‘could she have a miniskirt’? She did ......... I could never understand why girls did their ‘things’ in their bedrooms (right under the nose of parents). Much better to do what boys do and do their ‘things’ in a shed at the bottom of the garden..... Lynne went to St. Martins school in the centre of Solihull. I don’t remember much about her school days, but I do remember that every week, she had Greek dancing lessons (without plates) and Deportment lessons, which comprised walking around the gym with a book balanced on her head. Anyone who has ever seen Lynne dance will know that the Greek dancing lessons didn’t work at all and anyone who has seen Lynne walk will know that the deportment lessons were a complete waste of money as well ....... [only a Brother can get away with a comment like that]. Like many people, when Lynne left school, she didn’t know what she wanted to do, but she followed Mum and became a Dental Nurse, training at the Birmingham Dental Hospital. She absolutely loved it and quickly rose to the top. And I mean the top, as this was a high rise building and on the top floor were the consulting rooms of leading dental surgeons, Mr Hayway and Prof. Shovelton. Lynne became the Senior Dental Nurse and such was the trust the consultants had in Lynne’s abilities, they allowed her to do some bridges and crowns, even though she wasn’t qualified to do them. Lynne and David were married in 1972 and within a couple of years had started a family. It wasn’t long before they moved to Cheshire and I didn’t see that much of her over the next few years. She had three wonderful children, Mark, Claire and Stuart and when it was time to go back to work, Lynne trained to be a Teaching Assistant. Up until her retirement (just before her illness was diagnosed), she specialised in children with learning difficulties. In recognition of her hard work and total dedication over many years, Lynne received a well deserved British Empire Medal, which Tony will describe in more detail in a few minutes. In between her school career and bringing up a family, Lynne has also been a part-time St John’s ambulance driver and has done much charitable fundraising, completing sponsored walks and supporting fun days. A major challenge that brought Lynne and me close together in recent years, was the care of our Mum and Dad during their final few years. We made an excellent team; Lynne specialising in their welfare and me looking after care agency management and household administration. Lynne worked tirelessly to ensure Mum and Dad both had the very best care, starting with care in the home for Mum and leading to 24/7 nursing care for both of them. As always, Lynne was totally dedicated to the cause. The only thing I have ever found a bit ‘scary’ about Lynne, was her Notebook. I don’t know whether she has always kept one, but certainly during the years caring for Mum and Dad, Lynne kept contemporaneous notes on everything. Occasionally, I could be talking to her on a lengthy catch-up phone call, when she would interject and say “Pardon Me?”. At first I thought she hadn’t heard me properly because of maybe a crackle on the line and I would repeat myself. I leant to my cost that “Pardon Me?” didn’t mean she hadn’t heard me at all. What it meant was a two second warning that there was a small inconsistency between the version of events I was describing to her and the version I told her last week. I leant quickly that best way to deal with this was not to give a new description of the scenario, but to say the same thing again, using the same words, but in a slightly different order ..... Lynne was diagnosed with cancer almost exactly two years ago, only a few short weeks after she and David had both retired from distinguished careers. It was a devastating blow, but she showed immense courage and total determination during her illness; qualities she demonstrated right until the very end. Lynne’s funeral today is exactly as she planned it, reflecting her love of nature and awareness of the environment. Lynne was a very special person, as a sister and to all those who knew her ...... Kind, Generous, Loving, Sincere, Compassionate, Defender of the Truth, Upholder of Fair Play.... and Modest. I am immensely proud of her and all her achievements. They say that ‘Candles that burn twice a bright, burn only half as long’. In Lynne’s shortened life, her candle burned very bright indeed. That was Lynne..... my big, Big Hearted sister.

Lynne was a 'very special colleague'. I valued her friendship, her sense of humour, patience and dedication. We were fortunate to have her as a member of our staff. Angela

I wish to record here what a privilege it has been to have counted Lynne as a friend for almost half a century and what happy memories I have of her and David.She was someone who went about her life quietly and modestly, but achieved remarkable things. She was taken from us unjustly and too soon, but she will live in the hearts of all those whose lives she touched and thus, truly, death shall have no dominion over her. Larry