I forgot to put I enjoyed helping her revise for her exams when she did her degree in Classics through the Open University. She was such an amazing person, who had a fag and a cuppa for breakfast, her words not mine, and yet so cultured and clever. She was true to herself. My best friend.

I forgot to put I enjoyed helping her revise for her exams when she did her degree in Classics through the Open University. She was such an amazing person, who had a fag and a cuppa for breakfast, her words not mine, and yet so cultured and clever. She was true to herself. My best friend.

Brenda was my best friend for nearly 60 years. We met at work and I asked her round for afternoon tea so our young daughters could play together. She asked me back and our friendship began. We involved our husbands Graham and Richard. We went to parties and cruelly took the mickey out of men without them realising it. We shared secrets and kept them secret. We had our boys. We upgraded to dinner parties, we shared a birthday date 15 December. I still can’t play Cluedo as I was very drunk the evening I learnt it at a dinner party at Brenda’s. We went on holiday to Rome when Brenda refused to eat al fresco as she didn’t want to eat in the street! They came out to our place in France and came down here to Hampshire after we moved. We spent a day at Beaulieu Motor Museum which Richard loved but we found boring and sat and complained to each other. My memories are enormous and wonderful and far too much to put here. She was my best friend and I loved her.