Margaret Sharpe (2 Aug 1923 - 24 Oct 2016)

In loving memory of Margaret Sharpe who sadly passed away on 24th October 2016.

Margaret Sharpe made her way into our world on the 2nd of August in 1923, she was born in Avington, a daughter for Violet and Herbert Tomes and a baby sister for her brother Reg and was brought up in Swanage.
Margaret became known as ‘Peggy’ when she went to school, there were five girls called Margaret in the class and the teacher decided to name three of them ‘Peggy’.

Peggy had long, bright red curly hair which fell in ringlets and when she was about five, a family friend who was looking after her decided it was messy and she cut her hair. Neither Peggy or her Mum were happy about it and Peggy always said it never grew the same afterwards.

Peggy spent her childhood on the beach at Swanage, and at fourteen, Peggy left school and went into service as a Maid for a Bank Manager.

When she was sixteen in 1939, she joined the Women’s Royal Air Force, stationed at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland. She served with the Bomber Command and was a Steward in the Sergeants Mess. Peggy never forgot those days, seeing ‘the boys’ at breakfast and never knowing if they would be returning after the days’ mission.

Peggy was married to Charles Samuel Sharpe, who was an agricultural labourer. Ches’ as he was known was the love of Peggy’s life; they met in December in 1946 and they wed at Swanage Parish Church the following Easter, in March 1947.

They were very happy together and had five children, Keith, Sue, and Steve arrived first and after a ten year gap, Chris and Teresa completed their family.

Peggy and Ches ran a traditional household, Peggy was in charge of the house and the children and Ches’ went to work to provide for them all. Peggy’s family also lived with them for a while, her Dad passed away when he was 73 and they remember their Gran being heavily into her Test Cricket.

When Keith was a baby, Peggy would go shopping with their Aunty Lil pushing Keith in his pushchair. One time they arrived homed and realised Keith wasn’t with them, he was still waiting outside the shops!

From time to time Keith used to take off as a toddler to visit Aunty Lil for another dinner, stating ‘E I am’.

Her children said that Peggy was a lovely Mum, very loving, and protective of them all. Peggy was a great knitter and she and her Mum would sit together, with the needles clacking away as they watched the television or looked over their shoulders and chatted to one another. Steve learned to knit, but Peggy was unable to master teaching Teresa as she was a ‘left hander’ and Peggy couldn’t figure out how to teach her.

Chris and Teresa remember her taking her shopping trolley down to Lanky’s as they called Lancaster and Crookes and then to the Co-op in Woolston and how they’d raid the trolley the minute she walked back into the house!

Teresa remembers when Keith’s pipes froze and then burst in his house so he came back to live with her and Peggy for a while. She recalled hearing stories about him, like all good Mods he managed to get a Parka but could never afford to buy a Lambretta.

Peggy created a lovely, warm, family home where you felt safe and comfortable; she accepted everyone as they were and their friends were welcome. There was always a cup of tea on the go if you turned up and if you arrived unannounced at mealtimes, you would always be included.

Christmas was a time when Peggy would insist on having everyone together, and would include Teresa’s student friends and Steve’s RAF mates who couldn’t get home too. Peggy hated the thought that people would be alone at Christmas and they said that there’d be nowhere to sit, but everyone would be welcomed and fed.

For several years, Chris’ friend Dave from Liverpool lodged with them after his parents moved away from the area. Peggy welcomed him into the family.

Peggy worked too, she worked in Edwin Jones in the evenings, clearing the tills which meant totalling the tills, taking the till roll out and resetting the totals to zero for the next day. Peggy also worked at Glanvilles the newsagents in Woolston as a part –time shop assistant and she was there in 1976, watching the Cup Final on the television in the shop, while the boys went to Wembley to watch the historic Saints victory.

Peggy liked watching the sport on television, in particular, cricket and snooker. Ronnie O’Sullivan was her favourite snooker player, she also liked Terry Griffiths and Steve Davis too. Teresa was a fan of Alex Higgins as well as Ronnie O’Sullivan and if they weren’t watching the snooker together, they’d phone each other to make sure they were both watching from wherever they were.

Peggy also enjoyed watching Question Time, she loved politics and she and Ches were on the Committee of the local Labour Party and sold The Tote Newspaper to raise funds for the Party. Ches was a member of The Buffs and she a member of The Glades, which gave them both a good social life, enjoying a drink with like- minded people and having a drink. They organised coach day trips for children and adults too, which all the family would go on.

Ches also became a Committee Member at Woolston Social Club and they would go along and Peggy would play Bingo and they would also go to Hedge End Club and other Social Clubs where Peggy would play Bingo sometimes too. Peggy enjoyed Bingo but wouldn’t go to a Bingo Hall to play, the social clubs suited her best. Their daughter Sue and her husband Mike would go along and Sue played Bingo with her Mum; they enjoyed going out as a four.

Peggy was a very proud and doting Nanny to Sue and Mike’s two, Donna and Richard, Steve and Lorraine’s three, Nichola and Kathryn and David, the twins and Chris’ daughter Lauren.

Peggy looked after Donna and Richard when they were small and she helped bring up Lauren who became the focus of her life. She took her to school when she was little and looked after her before and after school when she was old enough to walk alone. Lauren even lived with her Nan for a school term, when her Mum, Karen moved to Bournemouth, so that she could participate in the Ludlow Christmas show. Peggy and Lauren had a very close and special relationship.

When Peggy was widowed, her life changed and having Lauren with her gave her the opportunity to continue to share her love and care.

Peggy always loved being in the company of her grandchildren, and she told Nichola to join the RAF so she could find a good husband in the Officers Mess.

Katie and David were a bit of handful for her when they were young, as being twins there was always some mischief going on, although she would always tell Teresa how David would go and visit her every day when she was living at Hartley Wintney.

After the grandchildren arrived, it became the tradition of Christmas day at home for them to be able to have their presents and then a get-together at Peggy’s on Boxing Day, to enjoy bubble and squeak and the boys would slip out to and to watch the Boxing Day football match at The Dell.

Peggy read a great deal at one time and she enjoyed watching the television, when she was younger it was the Soaps and then she had a few years hating the Soaps, and then latterly she enjoyed the Aussie daytime soaps and Emmerdale again. Her favourites were the mysteries, such as Green Green Grass, Midsomer Murders, Heartbeat, and Inspector Wexford, but she particularly liked Roy Marsden as Adam Dalgliesh in the PD James programmes.

After her beloved Ches’ passed away, Peggy’s life changed; for a short while she kept in touch with their friends from the Buffs and Glades and in her late fifties she got her first proper passport. She went on several holidays with the widows from the Glades and she travelled alone several times to Australia to see Sue, Mike, Donna and Richard. She was in Australia when her fourth grandchild Lauren was born. While there Peggy saw the Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsunday Islands among other things.

As the years passed, she no longer had a social life, although she would occasionally go on day trips with the Glades, but she became quite insular as things petered out.

Peggy continued to live independently and was largely in good health, she’d had angina and a couple of heart attacks but these weren’t life changers. It was when Peggy was in her eighties that she had some falls and Dementia began to show. Teresa got her a pendant alarm after a fall which left her on the floor for two days before she was found.

It was also when Peggy was in her eighties, that she insisted on being called Margaret again, her ‘proper name’.
Peggy had a love of cats and when Chris and his partner Sue first moved into their current house, she visited them and was fascinated by their ageing cat "Buster." She was pretty infirm by this time and didn't walk very far but she managed to follow Buster to the top floor of their three- storey house, just to make sure he was alright.

Peggy became increasingly more anxious and worried about people coming to her door, so it was decided she should take a flat in sheltered housing in Hartley Wintney which had a communal lounge. Peggy would happily socialise in the laundry room there, but she wasn’t one for the communal lounge.

As Peggy’s dementia worsened, she moved into a care home, she enjoyed living there and made friends. She fell in love with a man called Jack, they’d get engaged and fall out all in the space of the day and it would be the same the following days too. When family visited, her friend Carol, insisted that Peggy’s daughter in law Lorraine was actually her sister in law from Nottingham. The family enjoyed going to visit her there and loved it, that the care home would put on birthday parties for Peggy.

When Peggy was at the first care home she was convinced that Steve was actually the Care Home owner. and when he moved to Portugal, she was sure he was selling it and was convinced in her (and some of the other residents) minds that they were going to be made homeless. No amount of denials would persuade her otherwise.

There were conversations where Peggy would be talking about one thing and the conversation would be about something entirely different, but it didn’t matter. Peggy surprised them one time by announcing that she’d found a new skill – that of song writing, and sang them her composition. She wasn’t at all fazed when they joined in and sang along with her.

After Peggy moved to the care home Teresa's partner Jon did a lot for her and they developed a special bond, Teresa says he is the only boyfriend she has ever had that her Mum liked. She was a shrewd judge of character. Later in life Peggy also enjoyed the visits of her 'step grandchildren' Jake and Jack and doted on them as if they were her own.
After more falls and a stroke, Peggy was hospitalised and that was when her family lost the Peggy they had known and loved all these years.

After hospital, Peggy had to move into a Nursing home and in the last two years, Peggy rarely recognised them apart from Teresa, who Peggy saw often and they would always have a kiss and a cuddle. Peggy’s face would light up when Teresa came in, so Peggy registered that she was a special someone.

On the night of Sunday the 23rd of October, Peggy was admitted to Southampton General, Teresa went to see her for a couple of hours and at five the following morning, received the call to say that Peggy had passed away.

Peggy has lived a very long life, and as sad as her family are that Peggy is no longer with us, her family are all glad that for Peggy there is no more pain, no more suffering and that now she can be at peace.

We would like to think that she is now reunited with her one and only love, Ches’ whom she loved and missed so much for so many years.