Lisa Jane Worrall (16 Mar 1975 - 28 May 2017)

In loving memory of Lisa Jane Worrall who sadly passed away on 28th May 2017.

The inspirational children’s author Natalie Babbitt wrote:
“Don’t be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don’t have to live forever, you just have to live.”
And boy did Lisa live.

The phrase ‘not doing anything by halves’ could have been created with her in mind.

• She drank home-brewed rice wine with Bornean tribespeople.
• Became stuck between an angry bear and a confrontational deer in the Canadian Rockies.
• Floated in the Dead Sea.
• Followed in the footsteps of Indiana Jones in Jordan’s Rose City and
• Explored temples from Mexico to Vietnam

She was game for anything as long as it was well-organised and on time. And if we’re being picky (!) she was notoriously impatient - a family trait I believe?!

And she’d be so proud of that, because family meant everything to her. As her sisters Alison and Janice, and Mum Iris will vouch, as would Cyril whom she also adored.

She spoke most days to her family but never to the exclusion of others. My mum and dad fell for her instantly and it was often Lisa who would bring me up-to-date with the latest Worrall news.

How typical that she would be so happy to share New Year’s Eve with both families drinking at the Sydney Opera House in the style with which we all associate her!

That unique style allowed her to seamlessly mix business and pleasure. Other management accountants got jobs in obscure government departments or law firms. Not Lisa. She worked for Sony PlayStation and Ralph Lauren. Which made for some very happy birthdays and Christmases!

But to her friends Lisa was more than a female Santa. Much, much more. She guided, cajoled and supported.
Constantly thinking how to help and even towards the end berating herself for the unspeakable crime of missing a friend’s birthday.

Unsurprisingly, her friendships lasted. ‘Work’ mates became so much more than that. She even met-up with ex-colleagues when travelling in New Zealand. Although it probably helped that they were working on a vineyard at the time!

Again, nothing was done by halves. And Matthew and Eleanor would second that. Other parents try to plan pregnancy around work commitments.

Lisa, well she took a planned break from chemotherapy and as a result, we have Eleanor, our little ballerina.
Who, thank goodness, has inherited her mother’s looks!

As for Matthew he currently wants to be a policeman or to work in Battersea Dogs home. I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that both involve caring for others. Because he has benefitted from his mother’s love and care since Day One.

His medical condition has already led to five operations and over 10,000 tablets, each recorded immaculately by Lisa. So much so that the medical team at the Royal Brompton use her folder as an example to other parents.

But that was Lisa: Proving that love, energy and passion should never get in the way of a good spreadsheet!

Lisa was loved and respected wherever she went and whoever she met. But one person was luckier than them all.

I’m told the odds of winning the lottery are 175 million to one.
I’m not sure what the chances were of meeting Lisa in Churchill’s Bar in Southend on the 3rd July 1998 as it was a place neither of us regularly frequented.

But fate took its course, we clicked, over Chinese and then in an all-night café. Our conversation started then and didn’t stop for nineteen years.

We bought a house, married and travelled the world together. In London we wandered along the South Bank, booking theatre tickets and buying second hand books we never read

Then we became parents. Different lifestyle. Different challenges. And then the biggest challenge of them all.

From start to finish, life was lived to the full. No wasted minutes, let alone days.

She was constantly vibrant, devoted, loving, funny, positive, fearless, stubborn, resilient and strong.

She never, ever, did anything by halves. And she would insist we don’t spend today grieving.

We should take the advice of the great philosopher Dr Seuss, who wrote: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

Neil
xxx