Family

Douglas's mother Mavis died in August of this year. Her illness and death dominated this very sad year so the second part of this newsletter will try to be a tribute to her and her memory.

Menagerie

Holidays,trips and concerts

Because of the worry over my mother's health we have had no holidays this year.

We did manage a few short trips to London and Birmingham though

• We both went to Astrofest 2003 and then wandered around Kensington Library

• We also went to the Royal Academy for The Aztecs exhibition

• Douglas went to see Paul McCartney at GMEX

• Douglas returned to London later for the Titian exhibition at the National Gallery

• Only Douglas made it to the RHS Tatton Park RHS show this year

• Douglas was due to go to the Suzanne Vega concert in Manchester but that was the night his mother was admitted to hospital

• Following the death of Mavis, closely followed by Tigger we missed the Eyam well dressing for the first time since our marriage.

• We had to miss both Autographicas at Northampton and at Coventry

• We did however go to a couple of Memorabilias at the NEC in Birmingham where we met up with many tv and film stars especially from Dr Who, Star Wars, Buffy and James Bond including Tom Baker, Elizabeth Sladen, Paul McGann, Valerie Leon, Madeline Smith ( a very nice lady ) and Fenella Fielding

• Terry Pratchett fell ill so his signing tour was curtailed in October.

• We were due to go to the Meat Loaf concert in Manchester in November but his health gave way. We do hope he makes a full recovery and we hope to see him on December 21^st

• No Chris de Burgh concerts but we wish his daughter Rosanna well for the Miss World contest
  UPDATE : Congratulations to Rosanna Davison on winning Miss World 2003

• We hope to end the year with the Halle Carol Concert once again on the 21^stDecember ( Yes just before the rescheduled Meat Loaf concert )

Home and health

The Volvo has had another expensive year and ended November with a broken throttle cable.

Healthwise it has been a very stressful year and both of us have had problems.
Christine was off work for a month with an infection and has had several bad migraines and bad headaches too.
Douglas sprained his ankle on the wedding anniversary and has been more prone to flu and colds than ever before.

Jobs

We hope you have had a happier 2003 than we had and with good wishes for a better 2004

Douglas and Christine

dis@cix.co.uk and chrissie@cix.co.uk

The online version of this newsletter is at http://www.cix.co.uk/~dis/xmas2003.htm

Mavis Smith 17^th December 1922 - 10^th August 2003

Mavis Smith was born at Walsden near Todmorden as Edith Mavis Platt ( She was born in the same house as her grandmother was).
She was the younger child of William & Mary Ann Platt and had one brother Ronald who was 2 years older than her.

Her childhood years & education were spent in the Littleborough & Rochdale areas and she qualified for Grammar School. During this time the family lived on a hillside smallholding in the moors just above Walsden.

After leaving school, she worked as a clerk for Yorkshire Electricity Board and during the Second World War, she did her share of fire watching etc.

She went on many happy outings from work and spent holidays around the UK with friends

In August 1957, she and a friend went on holiday to Jersey where she met Douglas Smith at a dance. Their first date thereafter was at the Devil's Hole and six weeks after meeting they were married at Barton Registry office. She came to live over the grocers and cooked meats shop at Gloucester Road, Urmston.

Mavis miscarried early in the marriage after developing a thrombosis but in 1960 she had their only child Douglas Ian ( Mavis insisted on him having Ian as a middle name to differentiate from his father and grandfather ) For 26 years, she ran the shop with Douglas until they retired in 1983 After retiring, she daily spent many hours walking and exercising the dogs with Douglas as well as gardening, knitting, crocheting and helping with the donations for the Shelter charity shop. She was best known for her knitting and collected many balls of wool

Following Douglas's death in 1996, Mavis became a member of the National Trust. Most weekends in Summer, Douglas Ian and Christine took her around various stately homes and/or gardens and to many flower shows like Shrewsbury, Tatton, Hampton Court and Chelsea She enjoyed reasonable health until nearly the end of her life when she developed congestive heart failure and was admitted to hospital in April 2002. After treatment she returned home in May and was able to visit the RHS Chelsea Flower Show later that month and in June places like the Goyt Valley and Hardwick Hall ( where she insisted on walking around all the rooms and managed the great staircase with few problems). Unfortunately in July 2002 she tripped and fell downstairs leaving her with a broken wrist and severe bruising. This time she spent 13 weeks in hospital and eventually came home in November 2002 very much frailer. Strangely she never knitted again after this.

She did rally and celebrated her 80th birthday on the 17th December 2002 and was still mobile and chatty. Even telling the Doctor that "I'm 80 now, you know" when he called. She was especially enthusiastic about Dunham Massey and the squirrels, ducks and deer there but after a visit there on 3rd January 2003 she developed pleurisy and never really recovered.

She gradually stopped going out but still watched news and sport ( especially snooker which she enjoyed whatever hour of day or night it was shown ) on TV and read.

She lost the ability to walk in May 2003 and her legs failed her such that she could no longer stand.

On July 3rd she was readmitted to hospital.

She died sometime during the morning of the hottest day on Sunday 10^th August 2003 on Ward 1 of Trafford General Hospital.

At her funeral, which was conducted by Paul Costello from the British Humanist Association, some of her favourite music was played:

Howard Keel	"Oh What a Beautiful Morning"	A long term fan, she went to a concert of his in the early 1950s and went to the Howard Keel Golf Classic at Mere in the late 1980s just to catch a glimpse of him
The Spinners	"When I First Came to This Land"	Again she had seen these singers in the late 1960s and 1970s and last saw then in 1995. An email was read out : On behalf of all the boys, Mick, Hughie, Tony and myself I would like to offer you our condolence on the loss of your Mother. I was very humbled to think that we are remembered by people still and moved that your Mother would want one of our songs to be played at her funeral. We were very privileged to have so many lovely people as fans and we always appreciated that. God bless, Cliff Hall The Spinners.
Val Doonican	"Walk Tall"	Every time in the 1960s when we went to visit my grandmother Mary Ann Platt ( better known as my Grandma Polly ) we had lunch at a pub near Hollingworth Lake and always she picked this record from the jukebox