Dear Tim and Karen, Chris and Marian,
First of all, thank you, Chris and Marian, for being so welcoming to Car0lyn and me last Friday. It was very special to be able to see Peta and sit with her for a while in those last hours before she died.
Peta, as my godmother, and my mother Phyllis's cousin, has been an important part of my life as long as I can remember. My mother was an only child and I think she regarded Peta as something akin to a substitute sister - (she was always known to us as 'Auntie' Peta).
One of my earliest memories is a visit to Par, in Cornwall, where Peta and her friend Doreen were District Nurses. It certainly wasn't summer, but I do remember a very happy day on Par beach, which was just a few yards from the house.
Peta's mother, Hilda, and my maternal grandmother Alice lived in Tetbury (how things have come full circle!) and another childhood visit was one made there.
Peta was a most generous and punctilious godmother - she always remembered birthdays and her name is to be found in many books received as Christmas presents.
The next big occasion was wholly unexpected when as a chorister at the Canterbury Choir School the Headmaster Clive Pare took me and my brother John on one side and announced that he was about to marry my 'cousin' Peta!
Their wedding ceremony was a great event - Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher presided, and my brothers and I were pageboys. Just a year ago when Carolyn and I last visited Peta, she got out the wedding photos and the whole occasion came flooding back.
For me, as a 12 year old, the sudden eruption of 'family' into 'school' life was not without its awkward moments, but things quickly fell into place when 'Auntie' Peta became 'Mrs Pare' - or, as she was universally known by all the choristers "..'SPare!" She excelled in her new role as surrogate mother to a whole generation of choristers.
Over the years we did not meet often, but were always in touch - first in Gloucester, then there was our wedding in 1965 (Clive married us) and once or twice in connection with concerts at Canterbury (in aid of the CFP Memorial Fund).
Then four years ago Carolyn and I took Peta out to lunch at a splendid pub (carefully selected by Peta). By now 'SPare' had become 'BionicPare' and she was pretty crippled, but with great determination she climbed into our camper van and took us on a wonderful tour of the Stroud and Slad valleys.
It was a great day, full of happy reminiscence, and, like Peta, never to be forgotten.
We shall miss her.
Charles Vignoles
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