Rutland columnist Allan Grey shares memories of his lovely lady Lorna

I first saw Lorna’s smile at Finsbury Fairies, a Sunday evening disco at my University Halls of Residence on April 30, 1972, and it drew me in immediately, writes Rutland columnist Allan Grey.

She had the most beautiful face, the most enchanting smile, something she never lost; she still managed a smile just a few days before she went to sleep for the final time on April 29 this year.

I’m not sure what she immediately saw in me, but for both of us it really was love at first sight and very soon we were engaged, with me slipping a diamond engagement ring on her finger, romantically, in my old Ford Anglia behind the Odeon cinema in Edmonton.

She had a great love of diamonds and from that point on, the answer to: “What would you like for your birthday, for Christmas or for our anniversary?” was always: “Some diamonds please, at least two carats, maybe one carat in each ear.”

After several diamond rings into our marriage, we had taken a day trip out of Cape Town down to Stellenbosch. We got off the coach and Lorna said: “Which way shall we go, left or right?”

“I don’t know”, I replied, “I’ve never been here before, let’s go right.”

Well that 50/50 decision cost me a very large sum of money as just down the road on the corner was a De Beers diamond retailer. Two, one carat diamonds were chosen, and were set as a pair of earrings while we waited, and as we had missed the coach back to Cape Town, the owner kindly drove us back to our hotel in his large Mercedes.

When Lorna nervously told me the following year that she had some bad news to tell me after we had both returned home from separate trips abroad, I thought she was going to tell me that she had met someone else and was going to leave me. When she explained that she had managed to lose one of the two very expensive, uninsured carats, I was so relieved I gave her a great big hug, and told her how much I loved her, and if that wasn’t a sign of the great love I had for this lovely lady, I don’t know what is.

Lorna was a wonderful mother, choosing the role as a stay at home mum over her career as a home economics teacher until our daughters started school. After that she took on the role as a supply teacher at local secondary schools, ensuring she was around during school holidays to look after our girls. Lorna always got great satisfaction from teaching ‘special needs’ children, or in today’s vernacular, SEND children. There are many local ladies and gents in their mid to late 40s, little buggers at school, but who more recently always lovingly referred to Lorna as ‘Miss’.

Lorna’s love of children continued after our retirement and after recovering from a brain haemorrhage in 2004, Lorna was rewarded by becoming a volunteer and subsequently an ambassador for Make a Wish, a charity that creates wishes for children with life limiting conditions. For over 16 years Lorna devoted most of her spare time to the charity and would regularly visit families with poorly children to determine the child’s wish and work with the charity to create them. So inspiring was Lorna’s charitable work that she won the annual Red Cross ‘Inspired in Rutland’ award back in 2013.

Equally important were her crazy sponsored fundraising capers, like jumping 632 feet off the Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand, or abseiling off the Orbit at London’s Olympic Park and then riding the world’s fastest zip-wire in North Wales, which along with inspiring others into undertaking sponsored activity, raised many thousands of pounds for Make a Wish. People were amazed when she told them her next sponsored caper was going to be a ‘Wing Walk’, that is until they realised that Wing was a village in Rutland.

During this period she learned of Give Kids the World in Kissimmee, Florida, a fairy tale village where families with a child suffering a life limiting condition might have a wish created, spending a week there with visits to the Disney theme parks in Orlando thrown in, all expenses paid. Lorna immediately fell in love with her role as an angel there, travelling and accommodating herself at her own expense for three weeks each year, for eight years, just to volunteer, such was her love of helping poorly children and their families.

Not only did she volunteer at Give Kids the World, she inspired many people, both from the UK as well as friends in the US to join her there during those eight years, me included.

Lorna also undertook much local community service activity, working in Age UK for many years and was always a great supporter of Rutland Lions, putting in many shifts as a vaccination volunteer, initially in Melton Mowbray, then in Oakham and finally as a fixture in our local community pharmacy. Having lived in Oakham for 45 years there were few people she didn’t know when they walked through the door for a covid or flu jab. She just loved meeting people, putting them at ease and chewing the fat with them.

In parallel with her community charity work, Lorna was a loving and generous Grandma, both in terms of pocket money and ice cream, enjoying for many years looking after all four of them in their pre-school days, one day a week along with yours truly.

Fortunately opposite poles attract, because we were different in so many ways, me sporty and athletic, Lorna much less so, Lorna a wonderful cook, me much less so, Lorna the commercial director of our home enterprise, me the logistics, warehousing, stock rotation, waste management and filing operative. I have received a mountain of cards of condolence but I am still expecting one from Jeff Bezos, albeit he’ll be busy pondering how to arrest the fall in Amazon’s share price now that Lorna is no longer online.

Although we were different in many ways, we both enjoyed a love of travel, both together and separately, each of us totalling over 100 countries and territories visited across six continents, mostly during our 20 years of retirement. Our ‘home from home’ though outside of Rutland was Playa Blanca in Lanzarote, an annual get away where we managed a final happy three weeks together in March, just weeks before Lorna passed away.

I am proud to say that we were both loyal to one another from day one over those 52 years and although we both had health issues to manage, Lorna far more so than me it has to be said, we had an amazing marriage, which would have reached the half century in August this year, she was the light of my life, and I of hers.

I will miss Lorna every day for the rest of my life, but I am consoled that she is now at peace and no longer in pain, and that along with her beautiful soul, I will always be able to remember that equally beautiful face with the unforgettable smile.