FOR THE LOVE OF A WOMAN

Mum and David first met while playing parts in the Crompton Amateur Dramatic Society in Oldham, I would have been about 10/12 years of age.

A few years later, after they had met again and were considering getting married, a very brave David took we three teenagers, 15, 14 and 13, for a week's holiday to Blackpool in a caravan to get to know us - all by himself! He must have loved Mum a lot! We had a really lovely time. David survived and, not long after that, Mum and David married.

For their honeymoon, Mum and David took a trip to Cornwall - with we three and Helen, David's younger sister who was 17, in tow! The kids had a good time - hope the adults did too!

I lived at home with Mum and David for about 16 months after they were married before I went into the army to do nursing. During that time, one of David's quirks was to dump the pieces of a 1500 piece jigsaw on to the table-tennis table and leave us to piece it all together - minus the picture to guide us.

Being an Orchestral Conductor, David pencilled the scores for the whole orchestra. It was my job after the concerts to rub out all the pencil marks. It was a very tedious task. But maybe it was tedious for David to have to listen to my Elvis records, played repetitively at high volume. David would turn his classical music up louder too!

After I left home to go nursing, I only got to see David and Mum occasionally as I was stationed in a British Army hospital in Germany. In 1964 I came home and married Eddie. David walked me down the aisle and gave me away. He was a great Grandpa to our two daughters when they arrived.

David and Mum travelled to Australia a number of times after we emigrated, and, as Mum was born in Australia, they enjoyed travelling around whilst visiting us. However in 1984 Mum had a severe stroke leaving her paralysed down her right side and unable to speak. David became her devoted full-time carer. I can never thank him enough for the sacrifices he made to ensure my mother was well cared for and had a good life.

In 1994, David and Mum began coming to Australia every year to visit and stayed for 8-10 weeks. They did this for 9 consecutive years, until David found the aeroplane journey too difficult. David really enjoyed his stays here at our home and we loved having him and Mum. He loved the heat, the birds, the garden, swimming, walking and the time of respite while Mum was doing things with me. They did quite a bit of socialising - visiting people, going to the local movie theatre with its deck-chair seats (a bit of a novelty!) and going to local restaurants and pubs.

In 2004, David decided that he couldn't manage Mum on the plane any more so I went over to England in August to be with them for Mum's 84th birthday. I stayed for 6 weeks with David and Mum, but not long after I got back home I received the news that Mum had passed away. I asked David how long he would like me to stay with him after the funeral; he said "Two Years". We settled on 6 weeks. So there was a rushed trip back to England for Mum's funeral.

We spent a quiet six weeks, during which time we did a lot of walking, bird watching (including watching squirrels steal the bird food), shopping and cooking. David taught me how to do cryptic crosswords - to which I am now addicted!

David still came over to stay a couple of times after Mum passed away, until he found the trip too arduous. I really missed his visits, but we were able to keep in touch by phone. I am going to greatly miss the conversations we had, about his garden and mine, our daughters and the grandchildren. Sometimes David would give me a cryptic crossword clue that he couldn't solve, and ask if I could figure it out - which I hardly ever could.

It was a privilege to know David and be able to connect with him and share his interests. He taught me so much about gardens, birds, cooking.... but not music! It was wonderful to see his caring and compassionate devotion to my Mum. I will be forever grateful to David for how he managed the disaster of Mum's stroke and gave her an interesting, engaging and inclusive life.

David dedicated his life to my Mum.