Mum was well known for always having a tan as she was always out in the garden enjoying the sun or looking after her garden, which she was very proud of. Very often during the summer months she would be found outside drinking tea and reading one of the many books she borrowed from the local library.
When her daughters were home, she would spend evenings playing pool outside with them or be up into the early hours talking about anything and everything that was going on in each other’s lives. When the family were together over the Christmas period, it was a tradition to visit family and friends on Christmas Eve, play board games on Christmas day (which always got a bit competitive) and watch the panto as a family on Boxing Day.
When going on family holidays, mum loved being out in the sun and would end up sun burnt on each and every holiday. She was also well known for taking silly photos on holidays where she would try to line up buildings and other objects so that they were balancing on her head. When visiting theme parks, she loved going on water rides with the family and getting drenched, however, she hated heights so most rollercoasters were out of the question, but she would get very excited when she found a rollercoaster she could ride.
In her free time, mum would be found reading James Patterson or other similar authors, watching formula one and following the success of Michael Schumacher or seeing live bands, comedians and plays in Swansea or Cardiff. While out and about she would often manage to meet celebrities and has chatted to Peter Andre in a water park in Florida while on a lazy river ride and bumped into Rob Brydon which she was very excited to tell us about.
Mum also loved her work in Dunvant Primary School. She adored seeing the children in school and missed seeing them through lockdown. She also valued the time she spent with her work colleagues both in and out of school. Mum loved going out for meals with workmates at Christmas, which often resulted in drunken taxi rides home with one of her daughters and had many wonderful memories of numerous visits to Bluestone with the girls. When visiting she would often tell us about everything that was going on in school and even told us how no one could guess the secret Santa gift given by Ian the caretaker, which ended up being a bag of sprouts which she found brilliant.
With mum there was always a story about something silly she had done or something she had broken, for example, when she was decorating the bedroom the wind knocked the tin of paint off the windowsill and all over the floor, so she scooped up the blue paint with her hands and put it back into the tin. She then realised she still had the door closed and couldn’t open it with blue paint all over her hands, so she used her elbows to try and open the doors and turn on the bathroom taps. She then cleaned up the spill as best she could and left it to dry for a bit. When she went back into the room at a later time, while painting a new coat of paint she felt squelching under her feet, the paint had not fully dried in the carpet. Her feet now covered in blue paint and unable to get to the bathroom without damaging more carpet, she sat on the bed, waving her feet, waiting for the paint on her feet to dry. This being said, she was very good at DIY and decorating and would always prefer to decorate her house herself.
Written by Sian, Joanne and Emma ~xxx~