The obituary notice of Susan (Sue) WILLIAMS

Love you Ma hope this small amount helps a few more Keeta’s get better homes 🐾❤️

So sorry for your loss! I hope the happy memories will live on! 💔💜

Notes on funeral music the church we have chosen 3 well known hymns one of which has been my favourite since school days. Hopefully people will know them to join in.
As s change the crematorium choices are non religious and much more personal. Sue was never really a pop fan but 500 miles by the proclaimers was introduced to her by my son and used as his ringtone. She always insisted I let it ring till the end of the first chorus before answering. Sue loved classical music and her favourite was Mozart piano concerto no 21 of which she never tired. Finally Ralph Mctell's streets of London was written about Whitechapel in the late 1960s which is where we met. All the characters mentioned were real and seen by us. All these pieces were listened to her as she was passing and she indicated to us that she wanted us to repeat them.

Personal part 2. : Sue's belief in me gave me courage to qualify and move on in medicine to become the senior partner of an innovative GP practice and later in management to become Executive Director of quality, purchasing and information for two adjacent health authorities. She also gave me two marvellous children who gave me two wonderful grandchildren. The last 5 years have been stressful as her health deteriorated and as her sole carer I have been in lockdown with her for this time. But it was always a privilege to be with her and care for her. Now I must remake my remaining years but as she always said I could do it I'm sure that with the strength she gave me and the support of my amazing ramily I will succeed. Thank you my Personal Lourdes miracle,

Personal: After an unhappy childhood, I was a shy and socially inept medical student with no vision of a future before I met Sue. As medical students we rotated through specialisms in a small group and my group did obstetrics at Christmas. I first saw Sue when on the first day she did the demonstration delivery and met her shortly after when she supervised my first delivery. I thought she didn't like me as when I asked her for her name she said S M Abbott which I took to be staff midwife and not Susan Margaret. However as we were the only students present over Christmas we were invited to the staff Christmas Dinner and I managed to sit opposite to her and her best friend Dolores. The dinner was poor and I said I could do better on the 2 gas rings and small oven I had in my flat. Anyway that ended up with me cooking a full Christmas dinner for four which they enjoyed. So for the Christmas period I then got dragged by them to several parties by which time I was completely in love with Sue but of course couldn't find a way to tell her. Shortly after she moved to Kensington to do cancer nursing and I thought I'd never see her again. Imagine my surprise when some months later I received a postcard from Lourdes where she had volunteered to accompany a group of disabled children and it said she would phone me when she returned, she always said she didn't remember sending it but she did phone and invited me to accompany her to Epsom races which her father would be at working for the jockey club (he wa travelling down from Yorkshire). Although it meant missing lectures I jumped at the chance and on a beautiful sunny day we wandered across the Downs and I made her a daisy chain. When we reached the races her father had gone as he had been let go early to travel home but we were together for the next 58 years. See part 2

Career...Sue trained in nursing at Leeds and after a period as a staff nurse (including working on one of the firsshet kidney dialysis units) she moved to London to train as a midwife. Returned to York for the second part of training and then back to London as a staff midwife where I met her, after a short time at the Royal Marsden doing cancer nursing she returned to the Royal London Hospital as a relief sister before becoming Sister Upper ward in charge of the specialist metabolic ward, when I qualified we moved to Darlington where she again worked as a sister at the Memorial Hospital before leaving to have our first child. She then became a GPS wife which in those days included taking the emergency calls when I was Duty GP. During this period of her life she also obtained a degree in psychology with the open University, was an active volunteer for Darlington Samaritans and served as a parent governor for the school. When she felt our children were old enough she returned to work at first for MIND and then as quality manger at Winterton a large victorian mental health hospital. When this closed after patients were moved into the community she became a trainer for English vocational. When we retired to Scotland 25 years ago you first worked as a research nurse on a project on nutrition in schizophrenia, when this ended she moved back to vocational training ending her career as an examiner and verifier for SVQs working jointly for health and Social services,

I’m so sorry to hear this sad news , Sue loved her visits to castle douglas and she popped into mine for a cuppa
She kept me up to date on her beautiful family . She was a wonderful person