Yesterday 31/1/12, my fine and beautiful mother-in-law Veronica, grandmother to our lads, peacefully passed away in Barrow in Furness General Hospital. She had been fairly ill since we last saw her a week earlier and when we saw her on Monday she had deteriorated so badly that she had lapsed into a coma but looked very peaceful.

I had known Veronica for 24 years and whilst at first she found it a bit taxing to adjust to such a rough and ready lad like me then she was quite happy to give consent to Fiona and I getting married because at the time she was a Baha'i and we require the consent of all the parents for marriage. At no point over the years did she ever lower her standards and over that time my actions and thoughts became more consistent with hers completely in line with levelling up to her way of living. She was a powerful influence on keeping our finances in order and she warmly approved of the home education that our lads received although at first she did find it difficult to accept , particularly with Miles because we had such an individualistic as well as pretty smart child. However, after she saw the amazing quality of the work that he did for a five years of age child as well as the amount of it and also his uncanny ability to be able to talk about what he was doing at length she was completely convinced. Same with Clifford.

She was a tremendously loving mother to my lovely wife and supported her wholeheartedly with her aspirations to become a headteacher as well as the change of direction when she no longer wished to do that. Our lads, Miles and Clifford always loved visiting her not least because it was always after a good hike around somewhere in the hills so they were ready for a sit down as well as a good feeding up. The times we had together in her Ripon flat were really good but when she moved to Ulverston in the South Lakes there was an even greater sense of occasion because it was such a long journey from this side of the country in the East to the West.

I am a better person for knowing her over the years and I also felt this progressed my own intellectual and social standards knowing that what I did was under her eye. It is strange that even though we had mild disagreements about various economic as well as educational issues she was always led eventually by whether the facts that occurred led to progress and prosperity or not. I grew closer to her over the years and it was amusing to see that quite often Veronica and I understood each other when talking about economic matters so perfectly whilst Fiona her daughter was completely in the dark because she does not take so much of an interest in these things. I was hoping that she would live for a few more years because I wanted her to see me doing a job other than being a househusband but I have every intention for the rest of my life living up to her high expectations and she was very pleased with how I executed being a househusband as well as taking charge of the education of the lads because Fiona was so busy earning the money with her extremely time consuming teaching job. She knew that both of the boys were brought up do the one thing which is totally vital to humanities future and that is to do what society needs as well as fulfilling their own ambitions as well. God bless Veronica and I will truly miss her.