Where do you start with mum?! Throughout my childhood she was always there to dry my tears of which there were many, take me to hospital when I broke my arm, listen when I needed her to, or serve chips through the hatch, which she even wrapped in paper. Insisting she came to the train station with me when I went off to Germany as a 17 year old and after 20 months of letters and phone calls, meeting me at the station when I came back.

The first to send me a telegram on the birth of my first baby when I was permanently living in Germany. One of the most thoughtful things she did was start German classes at night school so that she could welcome, talk to and understand her grandsons when they came to visit. Oma England made sure they were loved from afar. When we all returned to England she made sure we all settled in and was a permanent fixture in our family life. After dad died, she adopted her own chair in our living room and at the dinner table.

We definitely miss our Sunday dinners and Viennetta with her.