Helen Grace Barnard (17 Jul 1921 - 30 Aug 2015)

In loving memory of Helen Grace Barnard who peacefully passed away on 30th August 2015 at the Magna Care Centre aged 94 years. Dearly loved wife of Tom, much loved mother of Janet, Paula, Richard and Julie and a dear mother-in-law, grandmother and great-grandmother.

Helen was born HELEN GRACE BISHOP on 17th July 1921, in London, the 9th of ten children. Helen Bishop and Tom Barnard met when Helen was 20, and they married 5 years later, in December 1946, and began their married life in London, before moving to Kent in 1947, on to Stevenage in Hertfordshire in 1959, then Verwood in Dorset in 1985.

They had a family of 4 children. The heart that both Helen and Tom shared for people in all sorts of need, led them to foster two other children when their mother was ill in hospital, and when Helen's sister Rose was dangerously ill after giving birth to her son, Tom and Helen took in baby Tim, having him for almost a year.

Helen was involved with the charity work of the church, and without any fuss or bother, often helped others around her with practical help or a listening ear.

Once the children were old enough, Helen trained as a short-hand typist, and was an invaluable personal secretary to several, if not all the directors, of Bowaters in Stevenage.

After Helen retired, and when they'd moved to Verwood, she continued to befriend others, and included in this was an invitation to the elderly in a local care home for the residents to visit once a month for a tea party in Tom and Helen's lovely garden.

Helen often said, wistfully, that the four children had all inherited something if their Dad's artistic skills, but that she didn't have any of those skills herself - it came as a surprise to Helen to discover that she was rather good at the potter class she undertook in retirement, that she really enjoyed learning how to do patchwork, that she could make beautiful jewellery using the beadwork she'd learnt, and was a dab-hand at making all kinds of cards by hand ... !!
On top of all this, Helen could knit, and the family can testify to her substantial skills in creating everything from knitted toys, baby clothes and cot covers, to beautiful cardigans, pullovers, mittens and gloves.

Our Dad, Tom, had to move to the Magna in 2013 following a stroke - a very difficult time - and Helen decided a year later to move there as well, to be with her Tom again.
Once there, Helen was soon knitting, and a "Knitting Circle" became part of the activities at the care home, prompted by Helen's plea that the ladies could have their own time knitting, while the men had their "Gentlemen's Club". By the time Helen was starting to tire, the ladies had knitted enough squares, of all styles, colours and patterns, that there were enough to sew together into at least one large blanket, for sending to a charity who would transport it to people in need.
To the last, Helen and Tom had been a faithful husband and wife to each other, over the ups and downs of married life, and Tom, a loving husband to the end, was with Helen when she finally passed away peacefully.

Helen is at peace now, freely enjoying her on-going life with the Lord she trusted to the end. It's not a quiet peace I suspect, because I'm sure Helen is enjoying the continuation of her eternal life, to the full!