Maureen Dickinson (18 Feb 1931 - 12 Jul 2018)

In loving memory of Maureen Dickinson who sadly passed away on 12th July 2018, peacefully in Dewsbury District Hospital, of Queens Drive, Wrenthorpe.

Maureen,

dearly loved wife of the late Herbert,
loving and much loved mum of John and Jill,
a dear sister of the late Sylvia and Audrey.

Will be sadly missed by all.

The Eulogy from the funeral:

Maureen was, in the true sense of the word, a simple person. Her tastes, her needs, her love for others were all of a simple nature. She was not complex, nor difficult to fathom. You always knew what she was thinking because she would tell you or, by wearing her heart on her sleeve, she would show you.

No more was that shown than in her love of children - not only John and his cousins but all children: neighbours; kids on the beach or even on TV. Maureen would beam when she was in the presence of youngsters. The last photograph taken of her was when holding Esmae, Katherine's daughter, in hospital only a couple of weeks before she died, and the smile said it all.

It made sense then, that Maureen would work for many years at a school as a dinner lady amongst hundreds of children. John will always remember how happy she was there as it was his junior school and he could see the pleasure it gave her.

Despite her simple tastes she was, unwittingly, quite bling. Her glasses were Prada, her watches all Rotary, her handbags Radley and when she initially went into hospital John was charged with finding her "hospital nighties" which were hung up on coat hangers waiting for a hospital stay. On inspection the labels were Berketex. Her other love was diamonds, a passion fed by lots of people with presents of jewellery of all kinds. Hardly surprising she was nicknamed the Duchess while in hospital.

Maureen was, to be fair, always clumsy and working in a kitchen was perhaps not the best place at times. She sported a remarkable array of scars from burns she had collected over the years from boilers, ovens, grills, pans etc, a trick she continued at home where there was a ready supply of germoline to apply to her hands when she inadvertently picked up a red hot plate or forgotten the hob was on and put her arm on it.

Falling was another of her traits and this continued throughout her life. It was a fall that put her in hospital earlier this year when she broke her wrist.

It is fair to say that the number of injuries and scars would normally be coupled with visits from Social Services but these were all accidentally self inflicted.

Maureen was a late convert to foreign holidays, the problem being her simple tastes and fear of the "foreign muck" she would obviously be unable to eat abroad. Once she and Herbert got the bug however there was no stopping the pair of them and 3 holidays a year was the norm once they had retired.

Maureen was born to be a mum and that showed in her love for John. Having lost a baby several years before, being told she could not have children and with the adoption papers completed it was a shock when she became pregnant with John. For the following 56 years she would do anything for him and, latterly, for Jill. They were both perfect, in her eyes, although as is usual the truth is somewhat different.

Maureen's love for John was only matched by her dislike of his motorbike. John know how much she would disapprove so, after getting married and passing his motorcycle driving test he did the decent thing - hid the bike and didn't tell her. It was so m uch of a secret that when after about 6 years Herbert found the motorbike in the garage he also agreed that he daren't tell Maureen either. It remained a secret for over 10 years when a friend accidentally let her know he had seen John on it. One monumental blow-up was followed by 30 years of anti-bike comments.

Maureen was never short of an opinion. In her last few days in the hospital John and Jill bought her a TV so she could watch the World Cup. She was an avid football fan and was upset when she couldn't watch the FA Cup final where her favourite team (Chelsea) were playing. Hence the TV was a must for the World Cup.

The outrage from Maureen over the Colombian team and their tactics lasted until the next match. At this point she was very ill and not capable of much speech. What she was capable of was reserved for the South Americans. This was only superceded as a disgrace in Maureen's eyes by a story in the Wakefield Express announcing the demolition of the "waste of money and practically unused" Market Hall. Simple tastes and simple likes and dislikes. Sadly, Maureen only saw part of the World Cup Quarter final against Sweden (sleeping through much of it) and was not conscious as England went out in the Semi Final.

Maureen was a devoted wife to Herbert who sadly passed away a month before her and there is little doubt that, to some extent, she gave up at that point. One week ago it would have been their 66th wedding anniversary and they had been together for over 70 years. Hardly surprising that given her health she felt she had had enough.

She nursed Herbert through some very difficult times over the 2 years prior to his death and it became apparent, after he went into respite care, quite how hard that had been. Maureen had covered up many of the problems and had run herself into the ground following her marriage vow that she had taken herbert on in sickness and in health. In fact it was a constant battle to get her to accept any help. It took John and Jill 18 months to get her to agree to care assistants, a further 3 months for a cleaner and then a major incident to come to the agreement that Herbert had to go into care for both thier sakes. At 87 she was exhausted with it all.

She spent her last 2 and a bit months in Dewsbury Hospital where she was cared for by an amazing team of people. She got to know them all, loved every one of them and became their model patient. No drama, no complaints, just a great relationship between her and them. John and Jill would like to express their gratitude to them at this time for the wonderful care given to Maureen through her entire stay.

Maureen died peacefully with John and Jill at her bedside. She had shown more courage and determination than anyone knoew she had following Herbert's move into the care home and subsequently into hospital. Even more so, after the initial upset following the diagnosis of kidney cancer she developed the attitude of "I'll just have to get on with it" despite having lost both parents and both sisters to the same illness. It was the loss of Herbert that proved the final straw.

We were all hoping not to be here so soon after Herbert's funeral but they are now back together having been apart for only a short time and we should be thankful for that.

Finally, those of you who were at Herbert's funeral would have heard that he was a hoarder and built sheds to keep what Maureen described as his "junk" in. Since her death Jill and John have discovered why. he couldn't get his stuff in the house for all the things Maurren had stashed there. the 12 days of Christmas could be the 12 hoards of Maureen. among the things they found were

12 Teddy bears,
11 suitcases,
10 packs of bedding
9 sets of towels
8 inhalers
7 packs of toilet rolls (with 9 in each)
6 packs of kitchen rolls (with 4 in each)
5 boxes of Daz
4 Fairy liquids
3 Radley Handbags
2 wardrobes of unworn clothes
but they couldn't find a partridge or a pear tree.