Patricia Mary Stacey (15 Jan 1928 - 17 Oct 2016)

In loving memory of Patricia Mary Stacey who sadly passed away on 17th October 2016.

Pat was born in 1928 in Leyton, London to William and Mary Ann Wilsenham and she had two older brothers, Bill and Arthur.

Pat started working at the Co-op in 1942, on leaving school but spent most of her working life at the London Electric Wire Co., also known as the Wire Works. She met her husband Ted at his brother's wedding.

In 1953 Pat married Ted and went on to have three children Christine, Susan and Ann, five grandchildren and three great grandsons. She was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother.

Pat was a supporter of the Royal National Life Boat Institution.

Pat's main enjoyment in life was knitting, doing puzzles and spending time with her family.

EULOGY FOR PATRICIA MARY STACEY 1928 - 2016, presented by her daughters, Christine and Sue

Most of you will have known Mum for a long time so we’d like to recall some of her stories and things we remember.

The story we remember most about her childhood was actually about the family dog, Jip. During the war, they knew when there would be a bombing raid, before the sirens even sounded, because the dog would run as fast as he could to the house, straight through and into the shelter.

We believe that Mum and Dad met at the wedding of Dad’s brother Bob and Margaret. As many of you will know Dad was the extrovert of our family – Mum was quieter and she kept us all in order and on time.

Mum told us that when Sue and Ann were born they didn't belong to her, they were Christine's babies. Mum just looked after them. Nobody was allowed to look into the pram when Christine was on guard.

Sue on the other hand would adopt the neighbours’ cats until Mum came home one day with a kitten. Sue threw out the cats she was holding, saying that she didn’t need them as she had one of her own.

And when Ann was small, Mum never had a problem knowing when she had done anything wrong. Ann used to run away with her hands on her bottom.

We always enjoyed our family holidays to Pontins. Some of the other regular family outings were to the local dinner/dances where Mum taught us all to dance. She even taught Dad how to waltz.

In 1980 Mum became a grandmother. When the phone call came, she ran downstairs to take the call, but was so excited, she couldn't speak and Dad had to come down to rescue her and received the news.

A lot of Mum’s recent interests can be linked to her grandchildren. She enjoyed cross stitch. Her first piece had the motto ‘If only I’d known how much fun grandchildren were, I’d have had them first’. She also stitched a family tree. Ben's late arrival cause a problem as the tree was full, but she solved that by having him parachute in from the top.

After a visit from her favourite granddaughter, Mum ensured that Gill’s teddy bear was packed carefully for the train ride home, so he could see where he was going, and made sure that the ticket had 'one bear' written on it.

Mum regularly did crosswords and puzzles, and she enjoyed jigsaws. The one showing six Thomas the Tank Engine characters she did many times while visiting John. We understand that even he realised eventually that it wasn’t Nanny’s favourite puzzle.

Mum was always knitting – lots of jumpers with Disney characters and Ghostbusters logos. It wasn’t a problem to produce another jumper when Shaun called to say how much he admired the jumper she had made for Alex.

Mum enjoyed films, usually comedies and musicals. When the grandchildren visited, she saw other films – Super Mario Brothers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were two she remembered particularly. The one she saw most often though was Star Wars. This was shown each Saturday morning as it was the only film that the young Alex wanted to watch.

Then recently, 3 more little boys came along. Teddy bears, again, became a priority with each bear having its owners initial embroidered into its ear. Our imminent new arrival’s bear is just waiting for his initial.

15 months ago, Mum and Christine moved to St Neots, in the same block and closer to the rest of the family, and it gave her a new lease of life. She could walk to the shops, cinema and library, feed the ducks and swans on the Ouse, and she had no gardening or stairs to worry about. Mum did laugh the day after they moved in when Christine knocked on her door still wearing her pyjamas.

Mum was kind and fair, practical and independent to the point of stubbornness. We love her and we miss her.