Reference
Z1650/10
Title
Eulogy to Sylvia Valentine Cooper (14 Feb 1926 - 13 Nov 2010)
Date free text
2010
Production date
From: 1926 To: 2010
Admin/biog history
Delivered Funeral Service at Norse Road Crematorium, Bedford on the 23 November 2010.
Submitted by Joy Cooper-Watson, daughter of Sylvia.
Scope and Content
My mother was born on Valentines Day in 1926 and was the youngest child of Albert and Olga Thurston and sister to Albert and Gwen. She was aptly named Sylvia Valentine Thurston and the family lived in Gorleston, Norfolk until she was in her teens when they moved to Cranfield during WWII.
I think my mother was a bit of a black sheep of the family, going to many of the dances held during the war at Cranfield airfield. She had been engaged to a pilot but unfortunately he had been killed in the war. She eventually married my father, Robert Lewis Cooper, or as mother would call him, Bobby. He came from the next village of North Crawley, which is where they married on 10th December, 1949. To begin with they lived with my grandparents until they moved into one of the new houses that had been built at Stewartby where my father worked down the brickyards.
When I visited my Auntie Joyce once she told me how my father had had a motor bike and that my mother would ride on the back, waving and shouting as she past by.
Whilst we were out shopping one day, a lady recognised mother and came over to talk to us. She was the younger sister of one of my mother's old boyfriends from Cranfield and said how she remembered how pretty Sylvia was when she was a young girl. She also remarked how she was a lovely person, but how she thought she had been too lively for Cranfield folk at that time.
Ten years after marrying I was born and I was their only child. Within two years of my birth my father had suffered his first heart attack; this was the beginning of seven years of illness and time in hospital. Mother also suffered problems and wasn’t able to cope very well and I would spend time at my grandparents home in Cranfield. My father died aged 44 when I was only 9 which left my mother a young widow of 42. As my father had always dealt with all the bills mother found it hard to deal with money. She struggled but always managed to pay the rent and put food on the table and would do a variety of jobs. We used to make crackers on the kitchen table receiving eight shillings and sixpence for 144 boxes, which is why I would never buy crackers, we got paid a pittance. Another job we did together when I was on school holidays was cleaning. Mum used to clean down the offices in Stewartby but also cleaned in some of the pubs in Bedford and I used to help by empting the ash trays, which put me off smoking and drinking for life. She also worked in Canvins and Woolworths, but her last job and the one she really loved was that of a home help. She would often go in on a Saturday and help some of the old folk without getting paid for it.
Another way she brought in money was to have lodgers. She would take in the new managers from London Brick Company before they and their families moved into the area. She would take great pride in serving their meals in the best room in the house, which was only normally used at Christmas on the best china and with mothers hand sewn napkins.
Mother couldn’t read or write very much, but she made all my clothes until I was about 11. She could knit, sew, crochet and embroider, all these skills she past onto me. In fact I was earning money by making bridesmaids dresses at the age of 14 and I did all the hand sewing on curtains mother was making for the local club.
Because of the way mum was she never built up any long standing friendships, she would just say hello to people, but she was always very kind and would help anyone that needed help.
I know she is now with daddy, nanny and grand dad, her brother Albert and sister Gwen and I hope she is now whole in a way she has never been whilst she walked on this earth.
Have a great time mum with all those who have gone before and until we meet again, bless you.