Remembering Mum I started to write this remembrance in our garden in the winter sunshine. Mum liked to sit at the end of the garden near HER Apple Tree. It was her special place in our garden. When Mum was in her early 90s she was invited to Westminster Theological College along with my husband John and myself. Dad had been a student there. We discovered the beautiful arts and crafts building which needed work to update it for the 20th Century. We discovered that Dad had been the top student in his year - none of us ever knew that, including Mum. Eventually talking to the college personnel they liked the proposed plan to donate Dad’s handwritten sermons and present them to the colleges archives. At the same time Mum asked whether they would be interested in her life story as the wife of a Minister of Religion. As a Minister’s wife she was unpaid but expected to run the manse, manage on one lowly income, type minutes and provide endless tea and biscuits or scones. At 90 we asked you just in time to write your life story. Mum grew up in Cheam, Surrey. Her parents had a number of servants. Mum went to a posh girls school, did well at school, played piano with distinction, did well at school sports and was an excellent swimmer. We are astonished at how Mum’s life had so many different cultures to adjust to. At 18 just as she had passed her school higher certificate exams World War II broke out. Mum went to secretarial college and learned typing, shorthand and bookkeeping. She worked at an Accountants office in London near St Paul's. From there she was recruited to MI6. We knew none of this, as like many 90 year olds they only started to talk about the war very late in life. We have now found Somerset County Women’s Institute had published a book in 2005 entitled "What did you do in the war grandma?" which included her experiences. The book was published several years before we got Mum to write her life story. The war played a crucial part after Mum and Dad married. Dad was placed in Doncaster, his first ministry being to help with the conscientious objectors who had to work down the mines. The next church was Harrogate. By then Mum had three children who all enjoyed the 1950s freedom in a beautiful area. Andrew and Robert joined the family after their parents died young and were adopted. Leaving Harrogate after 16 happy years was a wrench. Rugby was next. The 1960s must have had a lot of social difficulties. Mum became an expert at defusing difficult visitor situations by providing her record-breaking scones and tea. Auntie Rennie came back from Canada, a widow and well on in years and had no home and became part of the family. Leicester was next, the move happening after the United Reformed Church was formed from the Presbyterians and Congregationalists joining together. Mum said this time was all marriages and deaths. Her diary about that move is astonishing. So many family events and problems and Dad discovering a church who didn't want him. During that time John and I and Christopher and Karen went to Houston for three years. While there we joined a church full of different nationalities and newly moved Americans in the oil and gas industry. The idea of the Minister and family swapping churches, homes, cars for three months became fact. Mum and Dad had a wonderful time and were very popular, which really raised their self-esteem. On return to the UK Mum had to cope with her ageing and ill parents and Dad had to cope with no support from the church authorities and the prospect of early retirement and reduced pension. In Somerset Mum and Dad had a happy retirement. Grandma Baillie came and lived with them for many ears. Dad was kept busy with invites to preach around their part of the county. After Dad died Mum had a long and truly comprehensive retirement. Mum showed enormous skills in painting, embroidery works, the local historical group and community work. She was at the heart of getting the community centre built, the millennium celebrations for the Charlton villages, was on the parish council and was part of the team producing the village plan. When Mum could no longer keep up with the necessary driving and household bills, she then enjoyed life at The Hawthorns in Clevedon, where she made special friends and enjoyed not having to cook for herself. After Christopher died she moved to be nearer us in The Hawthorns in Braintree where again she had company. Eventually Mum moved to Foxholes Care Home in Hitchin and had amazing staff who enjoyed Mum's feistiness and who helped us keep Mum safe as Covid presented a whole new set of life problems. As her sister Mary said, a life well done. Rest in Peace Mum. Ann, Daughter