Edith Margaret Linstead (26 Feb 1925 - 13 Dec 2021)

“Lively, vibrant and happy” and “always keen on a joke and a laugh” are some of the ways people describe Margaret Linstead, who has passed away at the grand age of 96 years and 9 months.

Margaret was born in 1925 in Newcastle upon Tyne. Her family left the area for East Anglia in the 1930s but Margaret always retained her special Geordie personality - a straight talking, feisty exterior wrapped around a strong will, a generous nature and a loving heart.

Her parents first ran a hotel in Great Yarmouth before moving to Cambridge to take over the Pelican public house in East Road. The Pelican was also a lodging-house for theatrical people on tour, and a photograph from the time shows a laughing Margaret standing behind the bar surrounded by actors in make-up and stage costume. It must have been a fun place to be!

As a young girl Margaret had piano lessons and developed a lifelong love of dancing, along with her sister Vera. Margaret married Frank, who was also a keen dancer, in 1948. They started a family and had 2 children, Michael and Catherine.

Margaret was a very efficient touch typist and when the children started school she returned to work enabling her and Frank to buy their own home.

As the children grew up, Margaret and Frank discovered a love of foreign travel and went with friends on many holidays in Spain, Italy and Yugoslavia. Their last trip abroad together was to Berlin in 1996 to visit their son and his family.

She and Frank also doted on their three grandchildren, spending many hours taking them out on trips or giving them treats.

Frank died in 2000 leaving Margaret a widow at a relatively young age. She found it difficult to cope at first, living alone in a village just outside Cambridge. But her lively nature soon led her to join various clubs, to make contact again with former work colleagues, and to sign up for aerobics classes in the village gym. Holiday trips and visits to the cinema and restaurants provided her with a full social life over the next 10 years or so.

The death of her closest friend in the village was hard to take however. Growing health problems and frailty meant that eventually Margaret moved into a care home in 2016. But she adapted well to this change, enjoying in particular the musicians and entertainers who visited the residents.

Even when sitting in a chair she would “dance” to the hits of yesteryear. Although her short term memory was fading, she could still remember all the words to the songs from earlier times and would sing along with great enjoyment.

Margaret will be very much missed by her children and grandchildren. But her very long life and her peaceful death are a cause for celebration rather than sorrow. Her laughter and her keen sense of humour, her loving nature, her cheekiness, her singing and the expression in her mischievous eyes will always remain with those who knew and loved her.