Remembering a lovely lady who will be much missed.
Johanna Dennis (29 Mar 1932 - 29 May 2021)
Funeral Director
Johanna, or Hanni Hruschka was born on 29 March 1932 in Brno, Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic. Her father was a Sudetenlander, a German speaking group who were unwelcome after the war, and he and his wife, also Johanna, fled when the Russians invaded. Hanni and her younger Sister, Greti, stayed with their grandparents until the Red Cross reunited them and they moved to Austria. Hanni finished her schooling there in St Wolfgang and then came to the UK where she had a job in Woldingham, met and married John Dennis, the son of the gardener of the big house and moved to Addison Road Caterham. They had two daughters, Michele (Miki) and Heidi and lived for a while with John's parents. John died in 1988 and Hanni moved to Bletchingley with Miki, Heidi left home. Hanni travelled the world in those years after John died, visiting his sister in Canada, and, with Kathleen Clark, Miki or Margot, she went to Africa, China, the USA, Egypt, Malta, Jordan, Russia and Portugal, and with Greti to the Grand Canyon and to Ireland to visit Heid's in-laws.
She worked as a dinner lady, delivered pet food, spent many years at the Post Office in Caterham and the bakers, then 30 years at Oxfam in Caterham and Oxted.
She was active in the Mothers Union, Church and Meals on Wheels, took neighbours to doctor and hospital appointments and belonged to a medieval re-enactment society.
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