My mother, Eleanor Woolley, who has died aged 97 of pneumonia, was a wartime railway clerk, a 1940s single parent, a primary school teaching assistant and a devoted mother and grandmother.
She lived her whole life in rural Oxfordshire, born and raised in the small town of Charlbury. She was the second of four children of Albert Griffin and his wife, Tilly (nee Hawkins). Bert, who had been invalided out of the first world war, worked in the Cotswold wool trade; until her marriage, Tilly had been in service.
Eleanor won a scholarship to Chipping Norton grammar school (now comprehensive). She left in the midst of the second world war and joined the effort as an accounts and bookings clerk for Great Western Railway. In 1943 she married and in 1947 had her first child, Michael. The marriage failed soon after. Eleanor and Michael went back to live with her parents and she returned to her old job.
In the mid 1950s, Ernest Woolley moved in next door, fresh out of the navy. They married in 1956 and had two more children, Keith and me, aka Alison. Ernie worked at the Cowley car factory. We lived in a council house in Charlbury with a big garden and a dog, a rabbit and bantams. My childhood was happy and carefree, without too many luxuries but with plenty of home-grown veg.
My mother’s cooking was of the postwar period (“Open one can of Campbell’s condensed vegetable soup”…) but she was talented at pastry and loved entering cookery competitions at the Women’s Institute – brandy snaps, cream meringues and hand-crafted chocolates decorated with crystallised violets. She was an accomplished knitter of socks, cardigans, cuddly toys, tea cosies and intricate Fairisle sweaters. She put all her love into serious practical effort.
When her youngest child reached secondary age, Eleanor went to work as a teaching assistant at Charlbury county primary, the school that she and all her children had attended. She loved the job and the children, and stayed for 15 years, making lasting friendships among the staff.
A few years after retiring, Eleanor and Ernie went to live in nearby Hook Norton to be close to Keith and his family. They took to the village and enjoyed attending the Baptist church there. Eleanor carried on organising us all, ringing up to remind us to put the clocks back. Lately she did not remember much, though she was always able to tell you about going to London on the train to celebrate VE day outside Buckingham Palace.
Eleanor was funny, magnetic and sociable. She selected her friends meticulously but was loyal and devoted to them. She had a beautiful soprano singing voice. She loved choral music, Maigret and Morse, crosswords, yellow roses, ginger wine and dark chocolate.
After Ernie died in 2007, Eleanor stayed in Hook Norton, supported by Keith, until dementia took too firm a hold and she spent the last two years in a nursing home.
Eleanor is survived by her three children, by five grandchildren, Emma, Harriet, Charlie, Matthew and Adrian, and her sister, Janet.
