Just a few words about our mother, First I wish to thank all who have come, many of you some distance, to celebrate the life of our mother and a wonderful wife to our father Peter. She was born in Addiscombe in 1924, to Harold Wray and Evelyn Irene Lister. She was followed into this world a couple of years later by a sister, Valerie Annette. In the thirties the family moved to a new home in Coulsdon. She was educated at St Annes School for Girls developing an interest in music and and dance, becoming accomplished in ballet. By the time she met Pop she was also a proficient ice skater as well. Had she been born 60 years later she would have been on the TV. It is a shame that neither Mark nor I have inheritted this talent. I cannot speak for Mark but I have two left feet when it comes to dancing. After school, having mastered shorthand and other skills she became a secretary to a firm of stockbrokers in the City. This involved commuting daily by train from Coulsdon to London right through the war. I recall being told once how her train had stopped on a bridge over the Thames during an air raid. She said the bombs she could deal with but dammed if she was going to drown as well! After the war she took a new job on a green field site we now know as Crawley. She was secretary to the clerk of works and Peter, recently qualified as a civil engineer, took to her straight away. Together they helped to build Crawley New Town. They were married at St Johns Church in Old Coulsdon in 1953. Heather said she would be like to go to Harrogate for the Honeymoon. Pop took her Paris. They moved to a flat in Crawley and a litle later to a new house in the market town of Newbury. Mark and I were both born in Newbury – well Reading hospital actually- and while still very young Pop was posted to the Mediterrean, first to Malta for 2 years and then Cyprus, working on airfield developments for the RAF. The family went with him of course and we spent 3 great years in the sunshine. We returned in 1963 in that very cold winter. Mark was only 3 ½ and still does not like the cold. Once back in Newbury and then Purley, Mummy persued a number of interests as well as being a kind and caring mother. She became a good fencer ( rapier not post and rail) , and also enjoyed tennis and badmington. I remember her enduring patience when I was trying to learn to play the recorder for the school concert. Also her encouragement when we first ventured out on our own on holidays and outings with friends of our own age, and we got up to all sorts of mischief. We both got quite adept at falling in ponds, streams and old quarries. She could not do much about us falling in but did make sure we could both swim. We were always known as Mark and Tim. When she called me Timothy I knew I was in trouble. Many of the photos and memories we have are of various holidays we had as a family, and later as we boys had flown the nest, involved water and boats of many kinds. This reflected part of her life that spanned racing merlin and firefly dinghies to boating and canal boat holidays. After retirement our parents went yacht sailing in the Adriatic. Retirement brought a slightly less energetic life but still busy. Taking up golf and then latterly bowls, another sport she became proficient in. She also, with Pop collected considerable funds on behalf of the RNLI for more than 25 years. Sadly over a number of years Mummy suffered a series of strokes. Some small and others more profound. Each doing a little more damage and leaving her each time a little less able. The last few years becoming physically weaker but still with an indominatable iron will. Pop could not have done more to make her last years as comfotrtable as he could with drives in the country, little trips out, and indulging her fancies for figurines in the garden, tropical fish and a few odd notions. Being so far away it has been difficult for me to have been of much practical help but I want to say how much I appreciate the care and support that Mark and Yan have been able to give to both our parents, particularly in the more recent dependant years. Heather has moved on to a better place and we will all miss her very much. But I know that she would want us to remember the happy times and all the fun we had as a family and to smile at her memory. Pop can draw comfort in having been her most constant love and support and I know she would want us all to make the most of our lives and to remember hers with joy.