We would like to pay tribute to our mother, our granny and a loyal wife. To the person who has been, without doubt, the single largest influence in our lives. We all hope we have some of her qualities because we would like to be like her. To quote our dad, “she is an angel in disguise.” We know many of you have known Anne for many many years and may have seen other aspects to her but for us she lived for her family. Sadly I did not realise this until I had my own children and saw her with her grandchildren. I feel blessed that she has had a chance to see them grow and develop. When she was first diagnosed with cancer mum told me she wanted to live long enough to see Holly. Despite everything she achieved that goal. When she found out that her cancer was not curable and that she did not have long to live we asked her was there anything she wanted to do or see before she died. She had one request – she wanted to see her grandchildren. I believe God played a part in bringing Ryan and Lauchlan back from Australia , he guided Elaine and family back to England from Turkey so that Christian and Alexander could up and he blessed us with time for Holly to be born and come through from Edinburgh. Mum got her last wish. She had only one regret she would never have the chance to look after Holly as she had promised Neil and Ciara. She will be looking after Holly. It will just be in a different way, looking down and guiding her from above. As she will do for us all. She will no doubt do this without realising what she is doing as I do not think she knows how much she helped and nurtured us all. So what were Anne’s qualities. First that springs to mind is a positive outlook. Anne was an optimist. She not only looked on the bright side but she also genuinely believed that events would turn out in a positive. As a result many things did turn out for the better. If she was more into music and less conscious of doing the right thing she would probably have Monty Python’s “Always look on the bright side of life” as one of her funeral hymns. The next is reliability. If our mum told someone she would do something she would do it. She always kept her word. If you wanted part of her time you had to get in there first. If she had committed herself to something she would keep to it even if something better came along. Then there is patience. Anyone who can put up with our dad for 50 years has to have boundless patience. When we were kids it was always amusing when the patience eventually snapped and she would fly off the handle but when we look back it seems incredible to us that she could put up with us all. Humour. Anne was not a great one for telling jokes or being funny but she had an incredible sense of humour and could and would laugh at anything. In our house she was often laughing at herself. She not only endured Keith’s humour but was often the butt of many of the jokes. Even when she was the butt of jokes she still found them funny. Keith has gone through a lot in the last few weeks, things a son should not need to and we are proud to have him as a brother. Thanks Keith. Mum was trusting. God was mum trusting. She would believe any “cock and bull” story we told her. Eventually it became so easy we stopped but the grandchildren had found this out. When she visited us in Australia she realised she needed sun glasses – Lauchlan managed to persuade her to buy a pair with heart shaped frames in white with red polka dots telling her it was all very fashionable. It was classic mum, even when she realised we were all laughing she kept wearing them all holiday because the grandweans found it funny. If you have access to the internet look up Christine’s facebook page and you will see her wearing them. Finally, when I think of mum I think of a friend. Not just to her family but to most people she met. She has friends from school, friends from work, friend she made just to be friends, friends from swimming and friends from keep fit. I found out this week that she also had a cyber friend in America. If that wasn’t enough she was also a be-friender for nearly 20 years. We know many of her friends are here and for that we are glad. We talked a lot towards the end about many things but inevitably we talked about heaven. We believe that heaven is now a better place, made better by the addition of our fantastic mum and our doting granny. When times are hard in our life, like now as we struggle to come to terms with this, we know she will be by our side. As always she will state the obvious and as always she will support us and knowing we have that support will make us strong enough to get through. Christian wrote this note to his Gangy Dear Gangy, I am more sad than happy because you will go up to heaven but you will see your mummy and daddy and your gangy and grampa I will talk to you in the clouds and stars. Come and see me anywhere. We love you so much. Goodbye I will meet you in heaven and play in the clouds. Christian, Alexander, mummy and daddy.