Elizabeth ( Betty ) Betts (17 Mar 1934 - 30 Dec 2016)

In loving memory of Elizabeth ( Betty ) Betts who sadly passed away on 30th December 2016.
My mum was brought up in Kinning Park in Glasgow where she worked as a fabric cutter when she left school. She met my dad in the Locarno Ballroom in Glasgow and they married on the 5th June, 1954.
My parents moved to Grangemouth with me when I was a baby where my dad found work as a boiler makers mate in the BP refinery.
Childhood for me is memories of playing in our small sun trap of a garden with my friends among the many flowers and vegetables that my mum loved to plant. In the kitchen too, we shared many happy times as my mum loved to bake and I loved to test her baking!
As a family we loved to visit my gran's holiday home in Saltcoats during the summer holidays. I have glorious memories of cosy evenings in front of the open fire, playing ludo and snakes and ladders, laughing, and eating whelks which we'd picked earlier in the day.
My mum was devoted to her mother who moved from Ibrox to Hillington in the early 70's. My mum would travel to see her from Grangemouth every Saturday, taking two buses and a train each way.
In the 70's my parents got a taste for jetting off to Spain for our summer holidays. Great memories of sun, donkey rides, barbeques, music and dancing. My parents continued their love affair with Spain long after I'd flown the nest for as long as they were fit and able to do so.
My dad passed away in October, 1998, only nine months before I had my first child, Emma. It was sad that he never got to meet her or my other daughter, Sarah, who was born two years later.
My mum missed my dad dearly, and never really got used to living without him but she loved my girls and she would help out with minding them as toddlers while I worked.
Sadly, her last year was difficult and characterised by time in hospital as she had become prone to falls and to chest infections. She moved through to Castleview Care Home to be near me only a matter of weeks before Christmas. I remember thinking how good it was that she had got a place there before the festive season and how it would be good to be able to spend more time with her. Of course it didn't work out that way, things don't always go to plan. My mum was taken into hospital on Christmas Day having developed some breathing difficulties and although she fought bravely I think her body had had enough and she would not recover. I was blessed to be with her at the end along with my partner, Iain, who has been a tremendous support to me.
And so my mum has gone on to another place, another time, and one day we may meet again God willing.
With all my love.
Shirley