An Announcement in the Daily Telegraph this morning.

We put a short message in the Telegraph this morning referencing this site. So welcome if this is how you found this site.

You can also go to the online telegraph and find a longer announcement there with a picture of Mum.

Jeremy and his family listed a few endearing memories of happier, earlier times with Margaret. They are listed in no particular order below. Do please add any of yours as a comment underneath.

Tennis:
Margaret was a life-long tennis enthusiast and continued to play into her 70's at Ricky Lawn Tennis Club, where she was weekday member for 40 years at least. She loved Wimbledon Fortnight and the curtains in the living room were drawn every day from the start of play until the end of Match of the Day at 10pm. Lydia and Emily have recently enjoyed what Margaret would never have done - queuing up at 5pm for cheap late entry tickets into Wimbledon.

Gardener
She was a dutiful and meticulous gardener, growing annuals from seed each year, growing tomatoes, cucumbers, which were so bitter some years, and peppers and the family favourites - raspberries and gooseberries.

Cook
She was famed for her cooking and baking which fed dinner parties, family get-togethers and the deep freeze. She was one of the first to get a deep freeze and it was filled each year from the garden as well as Bejam, and more recently Iceland which she loved as a shop.

Home-maker
She kept a clean, well organised and totally decluttered house. Jeremy and Bryony were often charged with clearing out cupboards and rooms when we least wanted to. I could see her heading up a Channel 4 programme on the home and outshining Anthea Turner - not difficult.

Dedicated to the family traditions
I don't think we ever quite understood why we had to receive vast stockings each year, well throughout our adulthood, with rolls of binbags, car chamois leathers and sponges, all individually wrapped up. These had been assembled throughout the year from forays to Watford, Uxbridge and Milton Keynes. Anyway Christmas was very special and virtually unmissable. The Windsor pantomime was also a permanent fixture for many years and often involved very lengthy journeys for us to be there but united three generations beautifully.

Aran Knitting
There are many people in this world sporting highly complicated aran jumpers from 'Maggie May'. Mum seemed to have a brilliant understanding of arcane knitting patterns involving up to four needles and multiple row counters. She could control all that whilst watching the telly, minding a meal in the oven and keeping a fag alight. Only a woman could do that.

Grandchildrens' recollections
Emily and Lydia fondly remember staying with Granny and Grandpa and playing 'Taxi'; helping Granny with her latest mega jigsaw puzzle; playing with the special toys - Bryony's battery powered monkey drummer and the pinball machine, and being called 'Luvvie'.

We are very sad to announce that Margaret Labram died peacefully on Thursday 3rd April 2008.


This small site has been prepared in loving memory of our parents, Margaret and Geoff.


As you probably know, Geoff died peacefully in Watford General Hospital in 2004 after suffering progressive senile dementia over a number of years. Mum looked after him for nearly all this time. Mum has very recently passed away peacefully on 3rd April 2008 at Hollycroft Care Home, Ilkely, Yorkshire.


Sometime after Dad died, Mum moved up to Harrogate to be close to Bryony, and her family. She moved to a lovely residential home on the Stray, where they could offer increasing levels of care in the future, if and when it is needed. The photo was taken on the day she came to see the flat she first occupied. After 18 months it became clear that dementia was setting in and we needed to consider a different style of care home which was smaller and specially set up to handle residents with dementia.


We settled on Hollycroft Care Home, in Ilkley, another lovely town, not unlike Harrogate. We all took Mum over to look at her new proposed home between Christmas and New Year and she moved in on January 2nd. Bryony, along with the home had to deal with the difficulties of making the change of home as smooth as possible for Mum. It is tribute to Bryony that my last few conversations found Mum in the the most contented state I could remember.


It was with considerable shock first Bryony and then I was told of Mum passing away on the morning of April 3rd. She had been got up and left with her breakfast to eat in her room. Soon after, she was discovered to have died in her chair. The subsequent post-mortem showed that she had succumbed to bronchial pneumonia to which her chronic chest infection had made her vulnerable.


For various reasons we have decided that the funeral will be held in Harrogate which we know is a long way from Rickmansworth. We therefore don't expect anyone to make the long journey to Harrogate. We are therefore planning to make this a small family affair. If you did want to pay your last respects the funeral will be at Stonefall Cemetery, Wetherby Road, Harrogate, HG3 1DE on Friday 11th April at 9am


Jeremy will post a selection of pictures from Geoff's collection showing Margaret and Geoff at various stages throughout their happy life together. You are invited to add any memories you would like to add to these.


With love and best wishes for 2008,


Jeremy and Bryony.