We first met Sheilagh shortly after we moved to Reading in 1982 and  joined Carey Baptist Church. Two of our children were teenagers and used to meet up with the young people after the evening service, going round to different people’s houses. We did the same,  but not to the same address, so we would have somewhere to go and to save having to drive home and return to fetch the youngsters. Sheilagh would be there and also Shirley Englefield and Irene Young.

The “gang” as we were called sometimes used to go away together for a weekend. At that time there were 5 couples, the Youngs, Wyards, Jeanes, Ikins, and Margaret and Ed Reade. When these last two left Reading Gwyneth and I were invited to join the group, and because the children were old enough to look after themselves we five couples started meeting together at each other’s houses turn and turn about, and we did this for at least 20 years, every Sunday. Also we would occasionally go away together for the weekend, often staying at a Christian Guest House in Bournemouth run by Ann and Neil Rumsey who were members at Lansdowne Road Baptist Church. We had some really great times together as a group, going to visit places near to Bournemouth. Mostly we had the guesthouse to ourselves because we were 5 couples.

Sheilagh loved going to Charity shops. One such weekend we were in Blandford Forum and I found a sports jacket for sale at £4.50. Bargain I thought; I’ll have that and I wore it to work for more than a year. Not only that, but when I went to pay for it, I found it was on offer at a 50% discount. Even more of a bargain!!

I remember one very amusing incident which we learnt about during one of our Sunday evening meets. Sheilagh had two Persian cats, one named Duchess, I forget the name of the other. Anyway one of the cats kept going missing, and Sheilagh was most mystified about it, not knowing where the cat went. Especially even more because often when the cat returned it would bring with it balls of knitting wool. The mystery was to some extent solved by Margaret Ikin’s daughter, Charlotte, who at that time worked for the Tilehurst Mobile Library. Charlotte had overheard two customers talking about their knitting which kept going missing and they had no idea where it went to; well we knew where it had gone!

After Sheilagh was left alone, she still lived up in Tilehurst, and she used to  get around in a nice little  golden Citroen Saxo, to meetings  of the gang or to the Fir Tree Club for whom she  played the piano or to  work at two charities, The Link, at Tilehurst Village, and  Sue Ryder at Nettlebed.

After she had moved to her flat opposite Prospect Park, Sheilagh liked the gang to visit from time to time. Robin and Irene were no longer around, and instead Sandy and June Penman and David and Angela Tappin had joined Pete and Anne and Gwyneth and I.

We valued very much our friendship with Sheilagh and have fond memories of tine spent with her, and with Adrian and Kathryn.

We have known Sheilagh for over 40 years , always the perfect hostess and fun to be with.
During our time at Carey she was great at outreach inviting many of us for Sunday lunch , then  being entertained  by her playing the piano .
in her later years at ChristChurch we enjoyed being in the same home group, she was a great prayer warrior and although had gone through differcult times was always reaching out to others and interested in our lives.
we are going to miss her but know she is out of  pain now and at peace with her Lord.
Trevor and Dorothy Robinso