Although I remember a few happy childhood visits to see Auntie Peg in Queens Road, particularly playing with the fantastic puppets, my regular contact with her started in 1980 when I was working in Tunbridge Wells and she invited me to lunch every fortnight which carried on after she moved to Langton Green, until she moved to France.

During these years we got to know each other very well and I was amazed when she told me that the first house my husband and I bought in St Mary's Road, Tonbridge, had been owned by her father. She was able to tell me vivid stories of that and the surrounding streets of a time which was very different, such as her father had the only car in the road (now there are cars parked both sides) and about the goats that were in a field opposite, which was difficult to imagine in such a built up area.

The lunches were a good opportunity for us both to share news of our extended families and through these meetings I felt I knew her children and grandchildren well although we only met occasionally. Auntie Peg also shared her interest in music and the arts and probably educated me to a certain extent. We used to view the exhibitions at the Trinity Theatre together and she took such delight in works of all different styles and themes.

She loved showing me her garden both at Queens Road and in Langton Green and she taught me many names of plants and shrubs - whenever the weather was nice we would sit outside together after lunch. I always felt she was very much at peace in her garden at Langton Green. We shared a love of History and I loved hearing all her stories of the past, when she was young, her early days or working and travelling abroad and her Aunts' house and enjoying old photos and particularly her museum.

My overwhelming memory is one of a kind, gentle, non-judgemental, welcoming, educated and generous lady who loved music, new experiences, had friends of all ages and found pleasure and beauty in the simplest of things. I am writing this in 2021 as I still think of her and we could all do with a bit of her positive energy at this time.

Anita