Dear Mother,  on the anniversary of your passing from this world, I'm reflecting ... reflecting on the presence that you were, the helpless feeling when I visited you in the hospital, the words I said then, about not worrying any more, and of the happiness that would endure with me and the kids.  It was wonderful to have the support of your friends in Nottingham and around the world, and helped me appreciate more the varied life that you led, and how you touched so many along the way.  As I look at your photo on our mantel now, smiling with your binoculars and backpack, on a green hillside somewhere,  I reflect on the energy with which you lived your life, striving for ideals, never quite completely satisfied.  You were quite exhausting at times ... but somehow we needed that energy, and miss it now.  We try our best, and I hope it's enough.   With love, your son, Ted

Thinking if you on your birthday , you may not be here in person , but you are in spirit , I’ll always think of you when I’m watching birds flying High, 
and today a male Swan protecting his mate on a nest , a great crested Grebe fishing on the Marina . All the things we enjoyed seeing together , 
missing you , love Irene x x x

To my only aunt. To tell the truth I was always a little bit scared of you. Such a strong woman hugely travelled and absolutely sure of everything. My first memory is the trip into London when you took me to see the ballet Swan Lake. You parked on double yellow lines and told me not to speak if the ticket inspector came, so you could plead innocence in French! Thank you for all the trips down under (six in all) to meet my new family and watch my children grow. I shall miss the postcards from your adventures. Vale Doreen.

Speaking from the Antipodes, our Iredale family were privileged to spend several  interludes with her over the past 60 years as she was a great traveller to our shores (and many others), and we managed to meet her in the UK and France on occasion. Doreen had a fine intellect and superb concern for all things and peoples about her. Her staunchly independent enquiring mind was really a breath of fresh air and it was such a pleasure to meet with her in any context. We shall always remember her with fondness and respect.
Our thoughts are obviously with Ted and his children at this time; although I suspect Doreen would not have had it any other way.

I keep remembering more of our times with Doreen, including 2012 when Doreen stayed with us for most of our week at Parson’s Lodge in the village of  Stratton St Michael near Norwich and we visited the Felbrigg Hall, described as a one of the most elegant country houses in East Anglia.  After viewing the Hall and lunch in the National Trust café, we headed off to spend some time in the garden.  Trish and Doreen went off ahead while I walked more leisurely.  At a critical point I missed sight of them and walked off in the opposite direction along a pathway through Felbrigg Park. While it was a scenic walk, it turned out to be rather long, but we caught up again in the carpark.  We also visited Sheringham Park, the Norfolk Broads and other places in Norfolk with Doreen.  After that, the next time we saw Doreen was when she stayed with us at our Mollymook Beach home in NSW in November 2015 and enjoyed walking with Trish on the beach at Narrawallee.

In 2003, after young John returned to London, Doreen joined us at Mevagissey in Cornwall for the rest of the week and went with us to see the Lost Gardens of Heligan and Lanhydrock, an old stately home on extensive grounds.  In 2015, Doreen joined us at Gillingham in Dorset, from where we visited the National Trust Stourhead property with its scenic gardens and lakes with ornamental follies, including a beautiful Pantheon modelled on the Pantheon in Rome and toured the garden on a National Trust golf buggy. In 2016 we had young John and Doreen with us for a day at Virginia Water in Surrey.  In the morning we drove to “The Savill Garden” in Windsor Great Park .After lunch in the cafeteria, Trish and Doreen walked in the gardens and in the evening the four of us had dinner at a Virginia Water Chinese Restaurant, not far from our small apartment. So many memories of our happy times with Doreen.

I first met Doreen sometime in 1963.  Doreen was a close friend of my first wife Val, whose maiden name was also Williams, and whom I married in1964.  From time to time, Doreen visited us at Balmoral Road, North Watford UK, where we live from 1964 to 1969.  In 1969 I returned to Australia, taking Val and our sons young John and Geoff with us, but  sadly Val died suddenly from acute leukaemia in1970, though I continued to keep in touch with Doreen.  I saw Doreen in 1977 in Paris and St Paul's Cray, when my boys and I were having Christmas with Val's parents at Watford.  After I married my second wife, Trish in 1980, we continued to keep in touch with Doreen.  We visited Doreen in Paris in 1982 and on our subsequent trips to the UK, including when she stayed with us at Mevagissey, Gillingham and most recently at Virginia Water in 2016.  Doreen also stayed with us in Canberra ACT and Mollymook Beach NSW, including 2005 when Doreen came specially for my son Geoff's marriage to his wife Jo. Doreen also kept in touch with my son John, who is based in London.  We have so many wonderful memories of Doreen, which will live on for ever.

I first met Doreen in 1977 when I went to work for two years as an English language assistant at Nanterre, part of the University of Paris. Doreen was already well- established there, and was responsible for coordinating and mentoring all the lecteurs / lectrices. It is to her that I owe any knowledge I have of phonetics: as well as giving conversation classes, part of our job was to impart some knowledge of the subject to the French-speaking students of English. I wonder whether they worked out that in terms of knowledge, I was only ever one week ahead of them! We remained friends ever since then, helped not least by the fact that we both coincidentally subsequently ended up living and working in Nottingham.

Doreen was a passionate Europhile, an inveterate traveller, and her flair for, and love of languages lasted all her life. She had great intellectual curiosity and was interested in so many things, particularly the history and culture of the places she visited. She was full of facinating tales of her travels to far-flung locations. Even in retirement she was always up for a new challenge, and for quite some time did examining work for the Institute of Linguists. In recent years she had revived her knowledge of Russian, ready for a trip on the Trans-Siberian express. Only a few weeks ago, I stood with her as she deciphered the Cyrillic text on the Crimean Monument at the local Arboretum. She had survived the loneliness of lockdown remarkably well, and was already looking forward to future holidays: her first trip abroad would of course have been San Francisco.

I was always full of admiration for Doreen’s boundless energy and stamina. Since the pandemic started, we had met several times in local parks; each time, I would get a lift to where we were meeting and she would walk both ways, several miles altogether, to go on what was meant to be the walk.

Doreen was kind. For example, when my son was growing up, she repeatedly supported him by attending his concerts, both locally and further afield. On a number of occasions when I was ill or had major operations, she helped me out even though she was a good few years older than I was. She was fiercely independent, and never asked for any help in return.

Her death was shockingly sudden, and she will be greatly missed by many people, but nothing can take away the memories we all have of her. 

I was talking with my friend Doreen the day before she passed away. She called me because she was boring of not seeing her grand-children - though so happy to teach them regularly and listen to them, and seeing them growing well by WhatsApp. But she longed to embrace them really. She was longing for her friends and the travels she loved so much. I'm so happy we have talked  and so devastated not to have met her really once more. Awful times. We were talking of seeing each other halfway between Nottingham and Avignon, maybe in London, for visiting an exhibition together; we talked, and talked, about one hour, so many were her areas of interest and the joy she had to share them. She came and visits me everywhere, so dynamic she was. I know her wraths, her smiles, her laughs, very rarely her tears, so discreet she was. I love you Doreen, however your lifetime is over. See you soon.

It is such a shock and great sadness to learn Doreen has passed away so suddenly.

I first met Doreen in Shanghai in Oct 1995, when she and Rachel came to visit Shanghai. Ever since, we have been keeping in touch by letters. In Feb 1997, I arrived in Nottingham to study, we meet every now and then. Often I hear her stories traveling around the world and admire her hugely.

My last email to her was early April 2021, I am stuck in Shanghai for months, looking forward to return to England to meet her again. She told me she kept a few coins aside for me as she knew I am collecting some special coins.

Though I am of younger generation, I share lots of views with Doreen who is fiercely independent and with great open mind. I told her my experience how China has managed to control the virus. She told me that she and Ted have been vaccinated, so she was looking forward to see her son and grandchildren soon.

Doreen will be greatly missed as my dear and wise friend.