Kathleen Simpson (8 Dec 1924 - 8 Mar 2017)

In loving memory of Kathleen Margaret Simpson who sadly passed away on 8th March 2017.

Mum was born on the 8 December 1924 at 182 Main Road, Handsworth, Sheffield, but she mainly remembered growing up in Ecclesfield and Grenoside. She was always known by her middle name 'Margaret' by her family. It was the name chosen by her father as a first name, but was overruled by Iris and Ruth who wanted the new baby to be called Kathleen. By all accounts she had a happy childhood with her four sisters, Iris, Ruth, Joan and Sheila and brother Fred (aka Bill). Sadly Bill was killed in action in Italy during WW2. This was a time of great sorrow in the Green family and mum was deeply upset by his death.

Mum would often quote; " We're away to the woods to gather charcoal" as she remembered playing in Greno Woods and recalled a woman who lived in the woods and made charcoal there. In common with many households of time, the Green family had a piano, but not just an ordinary one it was a pianola! Her mother (Gran to me) played the mandolin. They also had a wireless receiver made by Granddad and a record player that played the latest hit 78 rpm records. My Gran's talent for hearing music and being able to then play it herself meant the family was immersed in music and Mum grew up with a love of music, she would recollect how her sisters sang and danced in the front room, causing her Dad to worry about the new carpet getting worn out! Art was another lifelong passion and she regularly went to art classes with her sister Sheila. Mr Bert Walmsley who lived at Bradwell, Derbyshire was their teacher and he became a lifelong friend.

Her parents Elizabeth Enid and William Henry Green were reasonably well off. Granddad co-owned B K Morton, steelworks, with his friend Mr Skellington. In the early days they had servants at home. The great financial depression of 1929 to 1939 impacted and Granddad had to sell his share in the business to his brother Frederick Hoyland Green because he needed to support his family. During this time they had to sell the family home and the family went into temporary accommodation at a council house at Tunwell Avenue Ecclesfield, whilst a more modest house was built at 53 Main Street Grenoside. Granddad was a talented metallurgist and continued to work in the steel industry and worked as a manager at Thomas Firth and John Brown where another brother, John Green was director and eventually became chairman. John Green was knighted for his contribution to the steel Industry during the war and setting up The British Steel Corporation. When Margaret's father retired he set up a commercial rose garden, his favourite flower and Margaret's too. He created special roses and his wife and daughters each had one named after them. Elizabeth Enid Green was a beautiful Red Rose and was accepted by Wheatcroft's the famous Rose nurserymen.

Ecclesfield and Grenoside are north of Sheffield and are fairly high up and mum would often talk of severe winters with lots of snow up to 6 ft high and having to dig their way out the house. Her parents were very important and dear to Margaret, this was always apparent. Margaret had strong memories of her paternal grandmother Anna Maria who was regarded as posh and a little feared by some other members of the family. Mum would often go to her Grans's house, which was opposite the primary school in Ecclesfield. This was partly because as a young child her parents thought that she was not strong enough to walk home from school at lunch times. Her Grandmother would often exclaim, 'Gilbert Gilbert you are the spitting image of our Gilbert'. Gilbert was one of her sons. On a Sundays mum and her sisters and brother were sent to 'high' church 3 times during the day. It was here that she sang the hymns and learnt the catechisms that she could still recite word perfect until her 90s.

When mum left school at fourteen she went to secretarial college to learn shorthand and typing as her uncle Fred needed someone reliable in the office at B K Morton. She would walk to her gran's where Fred lived and either travel in his motorbike sidecar or sometimes a chauffeur driven limousine. Margaret's work included dealing with orders of the special steels which were needed for aircraft during the war. Her sister Iris and Ruth also worked in the steel companies and during the war Sheila joined the Land Army and Joan the ATS.

Joan, who was stationed at Castle Donington during the war, was "stepping out" with Norman Robinson, who visited Joan and family at Grenoside with his pal Derek Simpson and that is how Mum and Dad met. The rest is history as they say and on the 7 April 1948 they were married and I was born on the 4th July 1949 in Ecclesfield, followed by my brother David on the 24 November 1953 in Nottingham.

When they were first married, mum and dad rented a cottage at 35 High Street, Ecclesfield from her Grandmother. Then in August 1949 about a month after I was born they moved to stay with my Dad's parents and sister Audrey at 15 Arnesby Road, Lenton Nottingham. Dad had got a job at the wages department at Sherwood Hospital and they saved up for a deposit on a new house at 56 Elvaston Road, Wollaton.

When David and I were old enough to go to school mum went to work part time doing temping secretarial and typing work. There were many places that she worked, but I remember only Sisson and Parkers in Nottingham where one of her friends was Eileen Woodhead. Eventually she got a permanent position at The Children's Hospital on the Ropewalk at Nottingham where she was medical records secretary to Dr Poulter and Dr Ball in the haematology and pathology department. A job she loved. She had to communicate with some of the children and learnt to sign, supporting Dr Ball on his ward rounds. Mums last job was working for social services in Worcester.

There were many house moves , because Dad changed jobs in 1964, becoming an Auditor for Cadburys Cakes at Ilkeston and they moved with the many changes in his employment there and latterly at United Biscuits.

56 Elvaston Road Wollaton - Jan 1952 - Dec 1964
33 Holly Avenue Breaston 1964 - 1970
365 Tolladine Road Worcester ( after temporary accommodation near Bournville)
19 Church Lane Darley Abbey
7 Bell Lane Snitterfield
23c Wilford Lane, West Bridgford. March 89 - March 1992
6 Sandybrook Close Ashbourne
15 Bayleaf Crescent Oakwood. 1998 - July 2013
The Firs Residential Care Home, Stevens Lane, Breaston.

At each of the house moves Mum made many new friends with neighbours and clubs. With each move she joined the local art clubs and classes as well as sewing groups and made beautiful painted and sewn pictures and embroidery work, another art expression. She was an excellent knitter and made many clothes.

Family meet ups were always hilarious when any of the sisters met up. There would be shrieks of laughter as they reminisced.

Whilst at Snitterfield, Dad had health issues which made them decide to relocate a bit closer to family and amenities, thankfully he improved. They lived in West Bridgford, Nottingham for a few years before moving to Ashbourne. They then moved to Oakwood in 1998 to be nearer to family. All their properties from Bournville onwards were bungalows. Mum and Dad worked hard at improving each home, doing most of the improvements and decorating themselves, making them very comfortable. Of course the garden was tackled each time, often with radical improvements. They loved their gardens, peace and relaxation. Most of their homes were in locations with open countryside in view.

Margaret and Derek enjoyed their gardening and visiting gardens. They had many days out - country and canalside walks, National Trust properties and gardens, and meeting up with family. They would meet up with friends and family for days out, regularly meeting with Sheila and Denis for walks and pub lunches. Denis knew the good places to eat and often pre walked the routes. Once retired Mum and Dad would quickly dispense with household tasks and enjoy days out Mondays to Fridays, having found where good pensioners' meal deals were for each day. They enjoyed many holidays in Britain and in the later years enjoyed returning to Llandudno several times a year.

A few of her friends that I can remember:

Ralph and Ray - Ralph was dad's pal from school and godparents.
Doris and Wally from Wollaton.
Audrey and Frank Dennis - from Wollaton
Stella and Spishic? Paleolog from Wollaton
Mrs Hill from Wollaton
Evan and Dorothy Price - Dad worked with Evan at the hospital - met up often for outings with mum.
Ursula Clarke - friend from years ago.
Doris and Alan Fox -I think he worked with dad at Cadburys
Tony and Shirley Pickering - art club at Stratford.
Stella Jacobs
Mrs Jewell - neighbour at Snitterfield.

Mum and Dad were great with our children, mum loved being a gran. Robert and Stephen would often stay with them for a few days from quite small, though rarely together! We would all often stay at Christmas and special occasions, when David would join us too. Mum and dad were supportive through some difficult times when the children were young.

My parents celebrated 60 years of marriage in April 2008. In September 2008, Dad died suddenly. This was such a shock to all the family and I don't think you really can get over it, but in November 2012 my brother David died after an operation for cancer. These were tough times where she relied the support of friends and family. Mum remained in contact with her two surviving sisters Iris and Joan and would frequently phone them and we would arrange family meetings. Fortunately, after dad died, I persuaded mum to join the Evergreens Club at Oakwood where she made lots of friends and went on outings with them.

Some people from the Evergreens Club:

Marjorie and Alex, Sheila, Tess and Joe, Eileen, Beulah, Rita, Eileen and Sylvia.

She continued to holiday in Llandudno with David for a few years. This certainly helped, but by the time of David's death in November 2012, she was showing signs of memory problems and was diagnosed in Jan 2013 as having Alzheimer's Disease. Mum was more reliant and Ruth and myself and needed people to help her in the house. Unfortunately she didn't realise that she needed them and would sometimes turn them away.

In July 2013 we admitted mum into The Firs Care Home. One reason we chose it was for the easy access to the garden and the way residents were happy to come to us and to volunteer how good it was. It was fitting because Mum and Dad stayed there on the eve of my wedding to Ruth in 1974. The Firs staff have always been very good and caring during what was a difficult time for all.

I would like to thank Tracy and Yvonne, in particular, but all the staff, too numerous to mention, for their friendliness which created such a homely environment.

Mum died at 7am on Wednesday 8th March 2017. She was 92 years of age.

Written by John Simpson with help from Ruth - March 2017

I have included the following written by Chris Ratcliffe, a school friend who had met my sheffield cousins Hazel and Linda when they came to stay at our house at Holly Avenue, Breaston. Other family meetings followed, including when Chris and I stayed with my Aunty Sheila and Uncle Denis at New Year Eve 1967.

There was something about Margaret and her family - her parents, her sisters and she herself - which was extremely attractive. As a group they were like huge space magnets that pulled you into their orbit. My principal memory of Margaret's family is of laughter and great whoops of hilarity. Very different from the family I grew up in.

I remember Margaret having a young outlook on life and being energetic both physically and mentally. To survive this life, we have to make the best of things which is a sentiment I think Margaret’s mother, Enid, or ‘Mère Verte', no doubt lived by given the ups and downs of her own life. But given all the events (national, local and in the family) that she lived through, I always had a sense that Margaret’s parents must have been very ‘solid’ people who understood that life is for living to the full and that they passed this way of viewing the world onto Margaret and her sisters and this philosophy maintained them throughout their lives.

It is very poignant to see the photographs of Margaret in her much later years when age has taken over body and to know that it was also to take over her mind. I guess my generation now stands at the verge of that same stage of life and I wonder how our generation with our education, our comforts and our expectations will cope with all that age will no doubt throw at us. Margaret represented a generation born after the First World War and whose early years were marked by the aspirations and hope that that first war had literally been the war to end all wars. But as civil society struggled to repair itself after those horrors, new menaces arose and led to a further horrendous war, the one in which Margaret lost her brother. And with those awful events and the preceding uncertainties, people of Margaret's generation (all our parents’ generation) cruelly had their secure futures taken from them. But people can survive all that and, clearly with the help of their parents, Margaret and her sisters got through it all and came out the other side determined to continue the family adage that life is for living. It was evident in her relationship with Derek, too, for the two of them always appeared so content with their life together.

Our generation hasn’t known what our parents’ generation knew. We’ve had it so much easier and for that we have them to thank. Margaret lived a long life and despite the unpleasant aspects of the Alzheimer’s disease in recent years, from what I understand, it seems as though the essential essence of Margaret wasn’t completely lost. When the rawness of this immediate post-funeral period calms down, Margaret’s family will have great memories to share of that unique Sheffield family, the Greens, and, of course the place within that family that has been occupied by Kathleen Margaret Simpson.