Anna Maria Brown
24 March 1955 - 30 January 2025
A life well lived is a precious gift
Of hope and strength and grace,
From someone who has made our world
A brighter, better place
It’s filled with moments, sweet and sad
With smiles and sometimes tears,
With friendships formed and good times shared
And laughter through the years.
A life well lived is a legacy
Of joy and pride and pleasure,
A living, lasting memory
Our grateful hearts will treasure
- Author Unknown
A Life Well Lived
Tribute
Bearing in mind Anna always thought I was clumsy, she will be so relieved that we managed to carry her in without incident. She will also be looking at the number of people here in amazement, I don’t think she really knew just how much she was admired and loved by so many family, friends and colleagues. For the next few minutes I want us all to remember the memorable times we had with Anna and find out what she did at a time in her life when maybe you didn’t know her
On writing this tribute I realised just how much she achieved in a life full of variety, travel and adventure. Anna, and me of course, lived in,and visited many different places and in all of them made friends for life. I want to welcome you all today and to those watching on the live feed. I want to send our love to Tina, hope she is recovering well and Anna would want me to send our love and best wishes to Jenny.
Anna was born in Southport on 24th March 1955. She lived in a three-bed house in Lytham Road with her Mum and Dad, Michalina and Albert, her two younger sisters, Tina and Alma, and grandma and Grandad, very cosy if not a tad cramped! She went to Primary school in Churchtown and then on to Stanley High School. Her love of sport started early, she loved swimming and during the summer she spent all of her time at Southport’s outdoor Lido. She was also a great athlete, the best in her school on the track and the best in County competitions as well. I remember her telling me of one county meeting when they were short of competitors in the shot putt, so Anna promptly volunteered. She proudly told me that she came second, only beaten by the soon to be international athlete Judy Oakes.
Now I am not sure how good everyone’s knowledge is on female shot putters of the 1970/80’s but Judy Oakes went on to represent England over the next 20 years winning gold in numerous Commonweath games. Wow I said and you came second…! Was it close?
Well no, not really she replied, still second is really good! How many competitors were there?
Two, she replied.
As a track runner she showed massive potential and her county coach wanted her to carry on after school, unfortunately back then her parents were not quite as enthusiastic about girls going into sport full time and her dad insisted she “get a proper job!”. So she started with the Inland Revenue and worked in Bootle in Liverpool. She very much enjoyed it there and had great colleagues. Ultimately her getting a job with the Inland Revenue would, a few years down the road, lead to her meeting me.......it would seem International Athletics' loss was my gain!
Now here’s a sentence you probably won’t hear again...she then met and married a Dutchman and moved to Dudley. She loved her time there too and continued to work with the Revenue. She was promoted to Executive officer and after a few years moved to Maidenhead and started working in the Revenue in Slough, this is where our paths first crossed. We first met in 1979 and got together soon after buying a house together in Lower Earley, near Reading.
We lived here very happily throughout the 1980’s getting married in 1986. Over the years we enjoyed many holidays in America visiting Anna’s family, we went to the LA Olympics in 1984 which was an absolute dream come true for Anna. During the 1980’s Anna really got into aerobics, she ran her own classes for a number of years,I used to go along quite a lot as she of course looked fabulous in her leotard and pop socks!
In 1981 she watched the first London Marathon and was transfixed by it. “I am going to run that next year” she said and I replied “good for you, that will be quite a challenge”.... I know, she said, that’s why you’ll be running it with me. There started our joint love affair with running but also for Anna the London Marathon itself. We joined a running club and enjoyed a great social life around the club, travelling around the country and having week-ends away at races.The year after we ran London, in 1983, she got involved with the organising committee of the London marathon, she was in charge of the army of medal hangers and every year, for many years she left home in the early hours and arrived home late at night having ensured every runner got their medal and a kiss. I must be one of the few men who was proud and happy that every year his wife kissed about 3000 men!
Anna continued to work for the Revenue until our daughter Alexandra arrived in 1987. She stopped work and enjoyed being at home with Alex. She loved doing everything with her and helping her develop and learn. I think she had Alex reading the Times Supplement by the time she was five! We had many happy years with great friends in Lower Earley.
Anna’s Mum, Dad and sister Tina had emigrated to California and Dad was constantly trying to get us to go and live there. In the early 90’s things were not going so well for me so we decided to start afresh in the USA. Unfortunately the immigration process took over 2 years and just as we got the go ahead we had a surprise package arrive!
Anna was pregnant with our son Max who was born in 1995. This delayed our departure but we still went. We brought a house with a swimming pool and with Alex catching the yellow bus to school Anna spent the days looking after Max and loved it there.
During the long delay in immigrating I had started a business in the Uk which was going really well, I travelled regularly back and forth and although Anna was really happy in California she agreed that we should come back to the UK and build the business together. It was not the first time and it would not be the last time that Anna stood by and supported me.
When we arrived home we briefly lived in Andoversford before renting a house in the village of Batsford just outside Moreton in Marsh. This was to be the start of a blissful 4 years. Here again we made lifelong friends.
Batsford was part of the Lord Dulverton Estate and the houses were rented to quite well to do folk but also some still had estate workers living in them. During our first week there Anna was walking our Black Labrador, Bonnie, when she came upon a lady with a headscarf, a dog and cut glass vowels.
Anna said hello in her northern friendly inimitable way and said that we have just moved in to No1, this lady said “oh gosh how lovely, the person who used to clean the Church has just left and we are looking for a cleaner, would you be interested?” Anna just about held it together and politely declined. I have to say she had a few choice words to say when she came home to tell me!
During our time here Anna looked after Alex and Max whilst organising all the admin for the business.
We eventually sold the business and moved to Chipping Campden, we spent a few years there again making great friends before moving to Cheltenham. Anna now wanted to do something she had always wanted to do and go to University. So at the age of 50 she started a biology degree at Gloucester Uni. She had a fabulous three years with her partners in crime Jennie and George.
They had a field trip to Dorset in year one, Portugal in year two then to the Brazilian rain forest in year three. A truly memorable trip. She had so many stories to tell but one that always amused me was one day when they went out into the rainforest for field work, they all had there trousers tucked into their socks with hats and boots on, making sure no creepy crawlies got in, whereas one of their number, Nathan, did the day in shorts and flip flops!
Soon after the course finished, yours truly found his latest venture in trouble during the financial crash of 2008, and so, once again, Anna stepped up to the plate to support me and the family and went for a job as an LSW working with special needs children.
She started work at a school in Seven Springs and I remember when she came home that first day she looked a little shell shocked.
During the day one of the teachers showing her the ropes said to her....
"You know, when people arrive to work here, they tend to last either twenty minutes or twenty years..."
Anna was the latter. She left Seven Springs to work in Cam before eventually going to Belmont school where she spent many happy years.
Lots of her colleagues are here today and will agree that she just had her own special way of dealing with the children, and it worked. Challenging as the work was she said there were always little victories that got you through the day.
Anna and I would walk through town most days either going to the gym or the shops and every now and again would see ex pupils. I would have thought, these kids in particular, rather than run into a teacher from school that they might cross the road or look down as they walked by, but no, they would often see Anna before she saw them and call out and come over. Anna was overjoyed to hear what they were up to, many now in work or in further education, a real confirmation that all that hard work was worth it.
She had always continued swimming throughout the years and now belonged to a gym in Cheltenham. It had a great swimming pool and she really got into the spin classes, she particularly enjoyed.... I use the word enjoyed loosely... Amanda’s classes. She had also been doing Yoga for a while now.
When she retired, just under two years ago she threw herself into Yoga. She got herself onto a teacher training course and became a qualified Yoga teacher and had plans to do so much more. She absolutely loved everyone at Orange Yoga and
particularly her friends on TT17, she said to me last year..... "Phil...
...I have finally found my tribe"
We have had some great holidays these last few years, in 2017 we went round the world, visiting Alex in Bangkok, Max, in his first professional performance in Auckland, dropping in to see her Sister in California on the way back. A couple of Christmases in Hawaii and a trip to Melbourne followed.
I think it truly was a life well lived.
Her greatest achievement will always be her children, who were her everything, she was immensely proud of the clever, kind, caring, fun people they had become, both loved immensely by their peers.
Anna would want me to finish now with words she often said to friends which seem all the more poignant now...
ENJOY ALL YOUR MOMENTS.
Namaste.
