MAUREEN FRANCE
.Another of her dreams was to be in Australia when England competed for The Ashes and last year, with her son Chris, she accompanied the England Team on their tour, staying in the same hotels and dining out with them.
1.5.31 – 22.9.03
Within months of settling in Norfolk, Mo, as she was known to us all, threw herself into the two major village projects, the restoration of All Saints Church Tower and the upgrading of the Village Hall. She served on both committees and her colleagues soon recognised her willingness to do anything asked of her. She wrote scores of letters appealing successfully for help and funds. She served on the Village Hall Committee until she became ill this year.
A special dream was to visit Glastonbury. This also came true when she spent a whole week there last May with Matthew and his family and together they climbed to the top of the Tor, a thing she’d always wanted to do. Mo made faithful friends where ever she went - the international chef and owner of the Imperial at Woburn, Felix You, hearing of her illness, immediately offered to come to her home to cook her meals.
Among Mo’s many talents was the gift of making cuddly knitted dolls and teddy bears, over the years she happily donated a huge number of these for fund raising. People came to know her as the cheerful, kindly woman busy at the Church Fete stalls and Village Hall functions.
To the end, Mo’s sense of humour never let her down. Her record request to the Hospital Radio was the Boomtown Rats No 1 hit which has the chorus ‘It’s a Rat Trap and you’ve been caught’. When the Chaplain came to cheer her up it was he who burst out laughing when she asked ‘Why should I be talking to you when shortly I shall be talking to the Top Man?’
Always good company, Mo was extremely well read and could hold her own on a delightfully wide range of subjects, never ceasing to amaze the men on her specialist knowledge of all sports. A bright child, she won a place at Broomwood Grammar School for Girls, Wandsworth, gaining distinctions in all her subjects. Her forte was mathematics and she was recruited by Lloyds. On the verge of her career as an underwriter, Ralph France came into her life. He was a dashing young man, driver of Jaguars, owner of an Allard and a brilliant cricketer. He introduced her to the team with the words ‘She’s good at maths, so she can do the scoring’. Thus began Mo’s lifelong passion for cricket.
SHARRINGTON VILLAGE HALL After many, many weeks of discussions, plans, meetings with various Council representatives, builders, endless letters and telephone conversations, it is very pleasing to announce that our Village Hall now has a newly refurbished Ladies Toilet, including a unisex disabled unit, hot water and an up-todate electrical system which does not fail in the event of a power cut. We have even had a heater installed! Needless to say there were a few problems along the way and one or two outstanding points are still awaiting completion, but the final outcome is very acceptable. As many of you will know, we have replaced the front entrance doors and had an old pathway replaced by paving slabs as well as upgrading the electrics in the hall itself. Unfortunately the latter upgrading is now so sensitive that it tends to ‘trip’ when everything is put on at the same time – hence our harvest supper was initially by candle power with light coming from the new toilet. So we do know that the separate toilet circuit works! We are also about to have a new fire exit door fitted as the existing one is rotten and lets in great gales of cold wind.
Ralph, Mo and their four children spent the family holidays at Mundesley every year. Before returning home they would float in the ebb tide a small log to which they had fixed a kite. From the shore they would watch until the log and then the kite disappeared over the horizon. It became their dream to retire to Norfolk. Then this young mother came face to face with tragedy. Ralph, in the prime of life, was struck down with a fatal illness, and Mo was left to provide for her children on her own. She took a job with an engineering firm and soon she became their chief buyer.
A big think you to all who have helped in this endeavour, and sadness that Maureen France did not live to see its completion, and Elsie Moore, although she saw the finished article, is not with us to appreciate the benefits of the changes. APG
When her eldest son Chris announced that he wanted to go into the music business Mo encouraged him and soon her house became a second home to such up and coming Pop Stars as Bob Geldorf, Bucks Fizz, The Barron Knights, Howard Jones, Jam, Marillion and Billy Idol. She was Mother Earth to them all. All Mo’s children have found success in their lives.
HAMLYN PEST CONTROL RODENT, RABBIT, MOLE, WASP and INSECT control by a professional, friendly service, specialising in farm, domestic and retail premises
Her son Patrick introduced her to the Internet. To Mo, this was yet another exciting source of knowledge. Her enthusiasm was also reflected in daily e-mail traffic with her children and grandchildren. The dream of retiring to Norfolk had come true. She told her daughter, Michelle, that her 11 years here were among the happiest of her life, her Southern view was always beautiful throughout all seasons and that she couldn’t have wished for kinder friends than her next door neighbours, Alan and Betty Preston.
www.hamlynnorfolk.co.uk
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