Petra Butcher 22 March 2024

Receiving an email from Alistair to let me know that his and Joanna's mum Liz had passed away which filled me with so much sadness. Memories came flooding back from the first time I had the pleasure to meet Liz and I had warmed to her straight away! This was in 1964 when I had met up with Alan Butcher while I spent a year in Kingswood as an Au-Pair girl from the Netherlands to study English for a year. So it was through Alan that I started to get to know his best student friends from Southampton University and hearing all about the trips abroad with Kim & Liz and Alan & Margaret Foster and Peter Ratcliffe to name a few! In 1965 Alan and I got married and we were so delighted that they came over to my home town Sneek to be at our wedding. It did not take long before the others followed suit to get married and we came to their weddings. From then on we tried to meet up with our babies in tow and to watch them growing up. They were such happy times and it is hard to believe that our kids have got married with their own brood and are now taking care of the parents having become 80 + years old. Who are now left with many precious memories of the loyal friends we have had the pleasure to know for that lenght of time. Liz will be very missed and just as much as my dear husband Alan who sadly passed away age 82 during Covid in 2021. RIP Dear Liz