Bessie Lewis

Bessie was  98 years old when she died. She did not have the easiest of lives, widowed at the aged of 26 during the war, she did not remarry but raised her four young children on her own. Money was tight and luxuries were a thing of dreams, but despite this, she gave her children the best that she could afford and had to work hard to do it. An independent woman, Bessie made the best of everything. In the latter years Bessie suffered several bouts of illness and  lost her son, Brinley seven year ago. However by this time she was not in the best of health herself and following a very nasty fall at her home, was hospitalised for several months. It was then that social services decided that Bessie could not continue to live at home alone.  She therfore spent the remaining years in residential care and nursing care where she did, on occasions, give the staff a bit of a runaround. Described as one of their characters they put up with her occasional stubbornness and harse words in good humour, sometimes giving as good as they got and always going back for more. She was much loved.