Claire’s Life
 
Born in Skipton on 6 April 1965, Claire described herself as a ‘new tax year baby’. Although an only child she treasured her cousins, Sian and Tracy, and spent much time with them: they were like sisters to her.
 
Following school at South Craven College, Claire went on to complete her RSA Diploma in secretarial studies at Craven College in Skipton and was awarded the top student prize. Over the years she continued to undertake courses either connected with her work, or for her own satisfaction, whether this be NSPCC Child Protection Courses, Adult Learning Support, preparing to teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector, Integrated Business Technology studies, the European Computer Driving Licence or simply doing her maths GCSE to prove to herself and to Katie & James that she could do maths ‘the modern way’. Claire was 1 mark off an A*, so the kids were able to maintain bragging rights! She was brighter, more intelligent and articulate than she would make out or indeed believed.
 
Work saw her follow a business path where she did accounts clerk / credit control work initially for Appleyard’s Group in Bradford, but also working at Cullingworth Mill, Brookes and later on at the Bradford & Bingley Building Society where she was an ISA administrator.
 
Claire joined Skipton Rotaract in 1987 which is where she met Jon in the summer of 1989. They became a couple on 8 Sept that year at their mutual friend Helen’s 21st birthday party. Their friendship deepened, as did their involvement with Rotaract, making new friends, holding various offices, organising events and undertaking many charitable activities – and enjoying many parties too which seemed to involve a lot of dressing up!
 
When Claire’s job was made redundant in the Autumn of 1989 she decided to do a ‘world tour’ and set off on her own to Singapore on 13 Jan 1990. Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, America and Ireland followed before she returned back to England. Jon joined Claire in Australia for four weeks and was waiting when she got home.
 
Claire resumed work when she returned. When working as a credit controller / payroll clerk for Flexiform she was mugged and had the factory wages stolen, but she didn’t make a big song and dance about it and carried on – that was her way.
 
Claire got engaged to Jon in July 1992 and they spent most of their engagement apart as he moved to Cairo with work later that month. Weekly letter writing became a fixed routine as were phone calls on a Sunday morning when Jon could get an international line. Trips to and from Cairo meant they were never apart for more than 3-4 months.
 
On 2 October 1993, Claire married Jon and they moved to Redbourn, Hertfordshire leaving behind her beloved Skipton. To this day she would still get gently mocked by Jon, Katie and James that whenever she went to Skipton, or if she was with her Mum, cousins or old school friends that her accent would slip and it all became a bit ‘Eee by gum’.
 
Hugely practical and never afraid to get her hands dirty, one weekend when Claire was working, Jon decided to knock down a couple of internal walls and she returned home to rubble bags waiting to go to the local tip. Typically, with little fuss she mucked in and over the coming months they worked together to refurbish their first home. Within months of finishing it, Jon was moved with his work to Coventry and they decided that a new build property may be a good idea!
 
In May 1997 Katie was born and James followed in February 2000. Claire could not have been more proud of her children and in particular how well they get on together. She chose to be a stay at home Mum for their pre-school years and her creative touches could be seen round the home or through souvenirs of many trips that were taken. She was never an OAP – over anxious parent – and didn’t smoother them or discourage them from doing anything. She kept all of us grounded, but was unfailingly supportive. Her sense of fun and general bubbliness were sadly dented at times due to severe post natal depression which, over time, became a recurrent depressive illness. She never made much complaint about it, although she (and Jon) are certain her illness stemmed from the anti-malarial tablets taken on honeymoon, where she had severe side effects.
 
Once Katie and James were at school, Claire changed tack with her career. She went back to work as an adult support worker at Coventry City College, supporting people with disabilities. Over the years she did other assignments at secondary schools and preferred supporting people rather than being the lecturer/ teacher. This led her into adult and child safeguarding at Coventry City Council where she had a great set of friends and loved their togetherness and humour. She was so very happy to have met up with them all in August.
 
Supporting charities continued from the Rotaract years. She did a 50 mile walk for Breast Cancer and for several years Claire managed the Finances for the Akamba Children’s Education Fund. A small charity that does big things supporting a slum school in Kenya. She didn’t get to visit the school, but contributed practical ideas and organised fundraising tombola’s and stalls in the Cannon Park shopping centre near to our home. 
 
A love of travel was also shared. Claire learnt to ski when in her late 30’s, thanks to our friend Cathy convincing Claire and Jon over a meal (and lots of wine) that taking the kids skiing in Norway would not be an issue. They were aged 3 and 6 at the time and that holiday led to James now excelling at skiing and Katie becoming a keen rock climber. More skiing trips to Norway, Austria, Italy, France, America and Canada followed. Claire enjoyed the skiing and loved the hot chocolate breaks and aprés ski even more! Cornwall was an annual pilgrimage and was often supplemented with holidays in sunnier climes or the occasional city break.
 
Bruce Springsteen and his music was a real love of Claire’s – he was her ‘go to’ artist – but she also loved a wide variety of popular music from the 1970’s onwards. It made her a great team-mate in any music quiz!
 
Claire was a good organiser. Holiday itineraries were busy and thoughtfully put together. The family’s 2018 road trip to America and our 2019 travels in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia exemplified this. 
 
She loved surprising her family too by making or buying little things. James’ 21st birthday was during lockdown so she couldn’t organise the party she would have liked for him. Instead, Claire went through Facebook and got pictures of his friends, making them into life sized cardboard cut outs so they were there ‘in spirit’. She could keep her surprises secret too and didn’t give clues away. When she organised the 2018 family road trip to America, amongst many other surprises, she organised a skydiving jump for the family. She kept it a secret and hid her own nerves to the extent that James was convinced the early morning start and heading out to an air strip in the desert would be a hot air balloon trip. He spent most of his time saying ‘It had better not be a hot air balloon ride’ (we’d done one before and he hadn’t enjoyed it that much). It took until we pulled up at the airfield, and the skydiving school, before we realised what the surprise was.
   
November 2019 saw Claire diagnosed with cancer. As was her way, she was pragmatic about it and about getting on with life, going ahead with immunotherapy and more lately radiotherapy treatment. All had been going well, but sadly she succumbed to sepsis which took her and the family both by surprise and shock. She passed away on 8 September 2021, exactly 32 years to the day from when she and Jon became a couple.
 
Claire was at her happiest when with family and friends – particularly organising or buying surprises for them, or family times such as holidays, birthdays and Christmases. 
 
She has left warmth and love in our hearts and many happy memories in our minds. She already is and will always be hugely missed by us all.