Mary Elizabeth Vera Stedman (1 Apr 1939 - 13 Oct 2022)

In loving memory of Mary Elizabeth Vera Stedman who sadly passed away on 13th October 2022. Mary was the eldest of three girls born in 1939 to Wilf and Dorothy Norris. She was soon joined by sisters Janet and Valerie. The family lived in Shirley near Croydon during the early part of their childhood and later moved to Billet Hill in Hartley.

Mary was confident and outgoing as a child and this continued into adult life. She was sociable and had a healthy circle of friends who used to meet up at the Hartley Country Club, where she met husband Ronald. Some of the friends made during this period became friends for life, including Mike and Pam Morfett, Wally and Betty Young, Peter and Sheila Maybe, Jeff and Maureen Newstead and John and Carol Robins.

Ron was an engineer and they married in 1964 and promptly bought their first house in Meopham Kent. Here they had two boys, Andrew (1965) and Graham (1967), both home births which was the thing in the day. Ron’s career progressed at Oxy-gas (armature winding and electro-mechanical engineering) and the car of choice was a Ford Cortina Ghia in bronze with a vinyl roof! Mary took lessons with Jean Brimble and on passing her test Ron bought Mary a red mini which became the family workhorse for years to come. Jean also became a friend and Mary used to recall when she badgered Jean to stop for chips during a lesson.

The family moved to Higham in 1975. Mary used to love popping in and out of the neighbour’s houses for a chat and possibly to catch up on the latest gossip! Mary had a good friend, Valerie Philips who she used to meet up with every Thursday. This was a hi light of Mum’s week, which she used to look forward to. They would go to different places for lunch, sometimes to a pub or restaurant or even cafes or sandwich bars. Wherever they went there was fun to be had and they’d often end up in fits of laughter and would usually leave an impression on the people they interacted with.
They also used to do regular visits to Burnham on Crouch to visit Mum’s Mum, Dorothy.

Ron sadly passed away in October of 1991. Mary got on with life but it’s fair to say that a piece of her died with him as she never had the same lust for life once he was gone. Mary continued to live at Higham for a number of years but she became less mobile and was unable to cope with the work required for the upkeep of the house. She decided to move to a flat in Regents Court, Gravesend which was aimed at over 55’s and had a warden and 24-hr helpline. Mary made new friends (something she found easy) but never really settled in her new home and would talk about how she missed the house in Higham and the neighbours.