My memories of Rae are rather unreliable of long ago and then more clearly from more recent days. Long ago, when we first met Kate and Alison (in my memory were all wearing white lacy tights …. and maybe bows? sitting all in a row on a sofa with Beth and Graham somewhere in the room too at the home of Neil and Dorothy) I remember her as smiling and normal, and not at all like a scary relation. 


I remember her being very kind when our mum and dad died: one specific memory if her face smiling in a roomful of people I did not know well at the funeral (not sure which). 


More recently she was a brilliant listener to me on the phone, always happy to talk about church music or heart conditions on the Sharp side of the family, she would let me ramble on about things that were bothering me and have wise and understanding things to say. I believe family was very important to her, she was thoughtful in her many years of friendship to our aunt, Jennifer, her also-musical cousin, as well as our dad, John, and she was keen to bring faraway threads together. My sisters and I appreciated that generosity of her heart very much.


I will always be grateful to her for kind listening and patience, for her making me feel part of a wider loving family, for her smile in a room full of strangers.