Ann Scott 8th February 1957 - 13th February 2014

AKA Cutie "scottie 0930" AKA "Mad Ann" (In my house at any rate.)

Ann was born into a wandering RAF family, but when her father died suddenly, her Mother took Ann and her brother back to Hull to live near her own family. Ann's progress through school was difficult as she was dyslexic and she left at 15 to start work in Lipman's the Tailor. (That is Maureen Lipman's father BTW) Quite soon she left there to join the fire service, mostly because her family said girls couldn't do that. Whilst learning to drive a fire engine and many other things, Ann managed to pass the necessary exams to go to Newcastle University as a mature student to study geology. She met her husband there and she went back to the fire service when she graduated. A career move took her into the prison service, first in women's prisons and later in men's where she taught the inmates to knit and embroider! She retired from the prison service as the governor of a maximum security prison. Her next career was in teaching. When she realised she would have to teach physics, a subject she had never studied, she signed on with the Open University and gained another degree to remedy her lack of knowledge. Typical of Ann.
Ann was the most loving, generous and caring person, and she passed these qualities on to her two children, now in their twenties. We met when she moved into an old farmhouse just round the corner from me when she was still in the prison service, but we only got to know each other well after we both retired. Ann's illness was quite advanced by this time, but when she learned I was going to upgrade to a new sewing machine, she bought my old one from me and had a huge amount of fun with it. She enjoyed sending and receiving gifts, and took part in every Secret Santa event right from the beginning. She visited Cute every day, but rarely posted.
Her cancer was a rare form of sarcoma which was treated by a succession of chemotherapy drugs. All the while she was going through this, she counselled other sufferers and worked tirelessly for the Cancer Information Network. The last drug began to fail in the Autumn and no new one was available so the disease progressed very rapidly. I sat with her in the hospice for a little while yesterday. Despite being sedated, she knew I was there, and I told her how many of you had sent their good wishes. The quilt was draped across the bottom of her bed.
Until the last few weeks, any time spent with Ann was full of fun, laughter and creativity. I will miss her enormously.