On behalf of Bob and the Family I would like to thank you all for coming here today. I would especially like to thank those of you from overseas, to Annette’s sister Loraine and family from Tenerife, to her sister Madge and family from Dublin, to Kathy and Brige from Donegal and to those of you who have travelled from the four corners of England. To Annette and Bob’s many friends from Australia, America and Canada who have been kind enough to express their sympathy, I say a big thank you; all of these things are of great comfort and help to ease the pain of this family. I must also say a big thank you to the MND association and to Ann Murphy in particular for the huge amount of love and support they gave to Annette. Also her Doctors and nursing staff at The Keech Hospice for their fantastic work, I’m sure you all know how much Annette, Bob and family have great appreciation for all of your efforts. Annette was born in Whitehall, a suburb of Dublin, the fifth eldest of eight children, to Helen and Richard Scurry. In 1959 Mrs Scurry and five of the younger members of the family moved to Luton to join their Dad. When her Dad became too ill to work, Mum went to work full time in the Co-op and at around fourteen years of age; Annette assumed the responsibility of Mum and Dad to her younger siblings, Loraine, Brian and baby Cindy. It was probably around this time that a special bond was created between Annette and baby Cindy that has lasted to this day. Even at that early stage she displayed a great sense of love and respect to one and all and was the main reason the family developed so well, surrounded by Annette’s deep love of family and her wonderful sense of humour. When Annette left school, one of her first jobs was at Kents, where she struck up a lasting friendship with Kathy Ayres and Maura Lennon which resulted in some memorable holidays in Donegal. Whilst in her late teens, Annette invested in a little Honda motorbike, although her Dad had his reservations. Just to reassure him, she invited him out onto the road to show him how easy it was. “I just put it into gear like this she said”…. when suddenly she shot right across the road and finished up in the garden hedge opposite. Luckily she was unhurt, except for her pride, and she had to laugh when her relieved Dad, “aren’t you supposed to sit on the thing?” It wasn’t long after that she met a shy and retiring man-about-town called Bob. The relationship blossomed in spite of her big brother, Derrick’s over-protective attempts at questioning Bob’s intentions. “I hope you’re not one of these love’em and leave-em merchants,”, he would say. Bob’s usual reply was a gentlemanly “I’m not quite sure what you mean”, while Annette in the background was pleading with her Mum to “please give Derrick the money to emigrate”. Sadly, big brother Derrick passed away eleven years ago, God rest his soul. But for Bob and Annette it was indeed true love, because they were eventually married at St Margaret’s in Farley Hill on July 19th 1969, forty three years ago last Thursday. What we did not realize at the time was just how serious they were, when they uttered those words, “in sickness and in health till death do us part”. Subsequent events have indeed shown us this was indeed a marriage made in heaven. A couple of years later, their son Stephen was born and then Kathryn arrived and Annette’s life was complete. That beautiful smile was never far from her lips. Her great interest in St Joe’s began when Stephen started his football career and had some great and wonderful trips to Dundalk and Dublin amongst others. And all the time, her fantastic energy and love of family allowed her to organize Christmas’s, birthdays, First Communions and family weddings. She was a blessing to us all, and showed us how to do the right thing, how to be a mother, and how to live and enjoy each day that God sent. She even found time to open a little clothes shop in High Town, where her taste in style and an eye for a bargain made her many friends and many customers, before it became too much for her. Bob and Annette had many friends, but they had six special friends with whom they socialized and had some memorable holidays in sunny Spain and many other places, These were Joan and Peter Hunt, Helen and Gerry Wells and Pat and Archie Harvey, great friends one and all. Well, they say weddings cheer you up and round about this time she got two within the year, when first Kathryn and Steve got married and then Stephen and Susie tied the knot, and Annette could not believe her luck, she was having a ball. But this was nothing compared to her immense joy when her long-awaited grandchildren arrived, Ben, and later on Jessica to Susie and Stephen, and then Joshua and finally Niall to Kathryn and Steve. They were all beautiful healthy children and Annette and Bob could not have been prouder. Then around six years ago, after been unwell for some time and undergoing test after test, Annette was officially given the dreadful news of MND. We can only imagine how she must have felt. Her first comment to us as we sat with her in the coffee shop at The Royal Free Hospital were, “thank God I now know what I have to deal with and that I have not been imagining things these past couple of years. It was indeed a cruel blow, not only to her, but to all the family. But it soon became obvious that Annette was not into self-pity, and from that day forward, every day became very important to her and no one was ever encouraged to feel sorry for her. She then went on to show us some real courage and determination as she continued to carry on with her very busy life. Each time we met her she remained as beautiful as ever and never without that gorgeous smile, that some of us dared to think, could somebody, somewhere along the line have made a terrible mistake and maybe her illness was not so serious? We lived in hope for as long as we dared because none of us wanted to deal with reality, and all the time our dear Annette seemed to be determined to carry on as normal. Just being in her company made us all aware just how unimportant our little problems were as she continued to shake with laughter at all sorts of situations. She was keen to promote MND awareness, and visited, along with many other MND sufferers, the Houses of Parliament to plead their case. She even made time to help organize many local fund-raising events for the same reason. When her speech started to deteriorate, she would laugh heartily at our attempts at understanding her and never got upset or embarrassed. When she was telling us recently that “Bob bought a kite for the kids in Milton Keynes”, somebody quite innocently replied, “why did Bob bring his bike to Milton Keynes, I didn’t even know he had a bike”. We thought we’d have to ring for the paramedics, Annette was howling with laughter. Annette was unique, to say that life will never be the same again for a great many of us is a huge understatement. She found great comfort in her devotion and love for her Catholic faith and every Sunday could be seen in her little electric car making her way to The Holy Family Church. Her great friend Maura, on seeing her struggle one day, suggested that perhaps she didn’t have to go to Mass every Sunday, maybe you should have a break some weeks, and Annette said, “Maura, sometime ago I made a deal with God, that as long as He kept me alive, I would come and see him every Sunday. What a girl, what a life, what an inspiration, and thank you God for allowing her to grace our lives for so long and making such a difference. Rest in peace, dearest Annette.