Hilda White (Passed away 16 Apr 2018)

In loving memory of Hilda White who sadly passed away on 16th April 2018, at Lavender Court, Taunton. Until recently a resident of Bishops Lydeard, she loved farms and farming and worked for many years at Mountfields Fruit Farm, Taunton. She will be remembered for her kindness and determination, which she showed to the end of her life.

Beloved mother of Sandra Matthews, Hazel White, Angela Wells, David White, Sarah Howlett, and Paul White, grandmother of Dawn, Kate, Ben, Emily, Will, Jackson, Danny, Ellie, Jasmine, and James, and great grandmother of Grace, Megan, Matthew, Ella, and Seth.

Memories, from family, spoken at funeral:

Daughter Sarah:

Son David:
My Mum. My very first memory would have been 50+ years ago back in Pixford sitting in a pram listening to the Beatles whilst mum picked apples.

I’m a little more certain about my memories of Mum at Pool Farm. When I look back, I remember an idyllic childhood, friends playing football, hide and seek, loads of freedom to explore near and as far as I could get to and back in time for tea. The door was always open and mum always welcoming to the flux of friends in and out with refills of orange squash. Years later, I was in contact with old friends through friends re-united & they recounted fond memories of times at Pool Farm, mum's nonstop cooking and just being a cool relaxed mum.

Of course, less visible to us all was all the hard work; making breakfast for anyone heading off to work early in the morning, doing the school run around Taunton to 3 different schools, Keeping the Aga going, making beds (ashamed to say we never made our own beds), tidying up and cleaning after us kids, making tea, cleaning the kitchen floor on her hands and knees, decorating (Pool Farm was a little like the Forth bridge), never finished and then latterly working on the fruit farm to bring in a bit more money, oh and keeping the Aga going.

Mum always put us first, we had very little money, on free school meals, but never noticed, never wanted for anything. Mum would drive a car full of friends to parties all over Somerset. I think she was a little worried that her socially awkward son would never find a girlfriend or leave home.

Thankyou mum for everything. Thanks for sticking with me, encouraging me at school through exam retakes, sending me money when I was a poor student, when you didn’t have any yourself. Thanks for your wonderful sense of humour. Just a few months ago we were having a laugh about my bossy sisters. Thanks for caring so much. Thanks for caring so much. Thanks for being a wonderful Mum and Gran. You were naturally quite brilliant with the kids when they were small and Jen and I were exhausted.

Thanks for everything mum, you’ve left us with piles of wonderful memories. We’ll miss you.

Daughter Hazel:
Mum was happiest outdoors: long ago I think she loved the rhythmn of carrying buckets of feed to the hens, and then later walking us to school, at Pool Farm picking peas and beans quickly into her apron for 1 o’clock dinner, hanging out loads of washing and seeing the wind fill it. She loved the lanes and taught me the names of the hedgerow flowers: pink campion, herb Robert, henbit, wood sorrel.
She taught me poems too. I remember the duck pond at Shute, the lake at Fovant and this Wind in the Willows rhyme she liked:
“All along the backwater,
Through the rushes tall,
Ducks are a-dabbling,
Up tails all!
She loved the village dances, was good at dancing, and driving--would joke she could have driven Dad’s lorries. She undoubtedly could have; we all knew that. She loved going far out over—to Lynton and Lynmouth but also to the Sierra Nevada in California.
She never gossiped, and never lost her patience with us. She preferred an almost complete invisibility and very little praise. But she was confident about who were the best farmers in the county, whose hedges were kept up, and whose strawberries properly picked.
At Derby Way for the last 25 years she had a clear view of the fields and the dear-to-her motions of the outdoors—men working, tractors, sheep grazing, clouds, a winter flood, spring growth, a summer twilight, birdsong. I like to imagine that landscape and view gave her a feeling of freedom and independence. Certainly farmwork did, with her friends. A space of her own. She grew wallflowers and tulips and roses around her bungalow. Beauty in modest excess, like the unconditional kindness she showed everyone all her long life, always in bloom.
So farewell, Mum. Thank you for everything. We love you. After you died, I felt you rise, floating over us and this beloved landscape, and now you going (in the words of another poet) “onward, ever westward, lost to my longing eye” (from “Gannet,” by Tony Carey).

Daughter Sandra:

Our Mother – Our Friend – A Daughter – A Gran – A Neighbour

Our Mother the lover of all things bright and beautiful

Her 1st love was family watching us play and grow, embracing with her love of life. She was there to support, to share in times of joy and sadness

Her love for us was un-conditional, we were very lucky

Keeping the family together was so very important too her happiness, there were times when one of us did something silly or made a difficult decision and we shared it with her. She would listen with empathy and was non-judgemental, if asked for her thoughts she would say ‘what do you think you should do?’

Her 2nd love was being outside in her garden where there were many plants planted with those strong hands – roses, wallflowers, geraniums, antirrhinums and many more.

Her love for gardening has passed to her children we all love being outdoors, maybe walking in lanes, across fields, through woods and along river footpaths gives us a lot of pleasure

Her 3rd love was the time she spent working at the fruit farm, she made some good friends, that made her laugh, Liz, Cynthia, Duncan and the Paris family. 9 times out of 10 Georgina ‘The Boss’ would ask the ladies to do whatever and they would chitter between themselves and do what they thought was best in terms of how the task should be achieved.

Mum would browse around her favourite clothes shops, chuckling at the latest fashions and remarking on the prices of today’s clothes, not that that stopped her buying the best. Always looking smart and as pretty as a picture.

Holidays were few and far between, mum enjoyed her times touring the Yorkshire Dales and Scotland with friends. Sitting on the grass at Tarr Steps with a well prepared picnic and watching us children playing in the river.

I recall when I was 11, I dearly wanted my first bicycle, there were no spare pounds or even pennies in those days, so mum not wanting to disappoint me used her initiative and exchanged her spin dryer for a RED bicycle – I was so happy, cleaning it every weekend.

Mum was a wonderful Nan to my daughters Dawn & Kate, they could do no wrong and they loved her to bits.

Friends and family will always remember Mum as being giving, determined, strong, independent and have a love for dancing and a ‘few Southern Comfort’s’ on occasions.

I am sure we can ALL recall moments when mum made us laugh. Now would be a good time to pause and remember, with a SMILE>

Grandchildren Dawn and Kate:
We have so many fond memories of our time with Nan but I guess the most prominent ones have to be the fun filled, action packed Christmas’s at Pool Farm. We would arrive as a small children bursting with excitement, walk into the kitchen to be greeted with all the wonderful smells of homemade cooking, Nan there in her apron busily cooking away and other members of the family all rallying around to help! The Christmas tradition was that presents weren’t opened until after tea, well as you can imagine as young children this was very tough to bear! Nan would smile and give a little giggle enjoying all the excitement.
The afternoon would be filled with some playing games of Snooker and pool whilst others relaxed by the open fire eating Quality Street and cracking walnuts.
Tea time would finally arrive and after our constant nagging and a lot of persuasion for everyone to please eat faster, it was present time!. Everyone would sit in front of the fire by the Christmas tree and two of us would give the presents out, at last we would think!
Having all the family gathered together in one warm welcoming home, sharing our joy and happiness was so wonderful to us and we believe the reason why we still continue to love Christmas time , a very special time for family. This was all down to you Nan, making truly the most wonderful Christmas’s ever, we will never forget them Nan as we will never forget you, thank you.
All our love, Kate and Dawn.

Grandchildren Danny, Elly & Jas:
Me, Ellie and Jas have combined our memories of Gran who was always so welcoming and pleased to see us all. She always had boxes of biscuits and sweets to share with us, followed by a roast dinner (with some ham for Ellie). Then we often watched snooker or the grand prix on the telly.

A few years ago, Gran came with us to San Francisco spending a week together with Gran staying at Aunty Hazel’s where we often played games in the evening along with Hazel, Matt and Jake, including Apples to Apples which we bought as soon as we got home and still continue to play.

When Gran came up to visit us she would help finish a couple of thousand piece jigsaw puzzle and play cards.

About 2 years ago we all came down and took Gran out for lunch, we think the pub might have been called the Globe. The food was actually really nice, and it was a really good day. Jas decided to have the most expensive steak on the menu, but then didn’t like it.

That’s just a few memories we shared with Gran and I just want to thank her for those memories of us together. We’re going to miss you.

Grandson James:
It was Christmas 2008, it was a warm sunny December day in South Africa. Grandma was wearing a blue swim suit, she told me it was the first time she had ever got into a swimming pool. I must have been about a foot shorter than her. I stood there watching mum reassure her that she could stand in the pool, and not to worry. She got to the last step. No matter what mum said she could not get in. The next day we tried again, only this time grandma would get as far as dangling her legs in the water. She told me she had left it too late in life to try something new. Every day after we tried to persuade her to get in, but she never did. Some evenings we would eat out in the city, there were a lot of poor people living on the street, grandma would leave some of her food and ask the waiter to put it in a box. On the way back to the car she gave the food to the street people.