16/01/2026
My mother Caroline has died. Top notch economist, reverend, lover of people, plants, conversation, walks and wine.
My lovely mother.
She was bedbound with Lewy Body dementia for the last few years, a cruel fate for someone so sprightly, full of life and enthusiasm. My cousin and I went to see her. She looked very serene in her bed. The Manager came and said how sorry he was, and that yesterday she had eaten her pudding and been very chatty to her carer Andrew, who’s looked after her for 6 years. A lovely man - he truly adored her and she him – I think she might have thought she was back in Jamaica as a child when she looked at him.
Andrew came into the room and sobbed as he said how he would miss her – we think he was carrying some grief for his father, so we comforted him.
He said she’d been chattering away, but of course it was hard to understand her. But she said ‘Jesus’ and ‘Lord’ a lot and it sounded like she was praying.
Then he said she gave him such a beatific smile - ‘in all my 11 years working here I’ve never seen such a smile. I’ll never forget it.’
A few of the other staff also came to pay their respects. She was very much loved by them. And us.
Some pictures of her follow - most of the picture itself so excuse the quality.
A bottle while punting at Oxford, a conference in Milan (she was usually the only woman at these things), her ordination by - coincidentally I’d graduated at Canterbury cathedral 12 years earlier.
