Betty Hesketh

God put his arms around you, and whispered peace be thine.

Betty, beloved wife to the late Roy, devoted mum to John, much loved
auntie to Christine, great auntie to John, Jackie, and Stephen and very much a
loving ‘grandma’ to Kerry and Louise, dear auntie in law to Christine’s husband John
and a good friend and neighbour to many over the years.
Family had always been so important to Betty, maybe it stemmed from the strong,
loving parents, Bertha and Stanley who welcomed her into the world on 15 th October
1929 in Madeley. Betty was always incredibly close to her brother Bernard and she
had an older sister Mabel. I gather the family moved to Crewe where Betty attended
Ludford Street School and as a young girl, she gained experience at Woolworths
before becoming a shop assistant Woodvines, a busy grocery and delicatessens in
Crewe.
Betty and Roy lived relatively near to each other, so they were possibly childhood
sweethearts but however they met, they married on 4 th July 1953. After the wedding,
they had a fabulous honeymoon in Jersey and Betty often reminisced about how
beautiful it was there.
When Betty and Roy returned from honeymoon, they lived with Bernard and Eva for
a while until they found their forever home, a bungalow in Underwood Lane. After
John was born, Betty devoted herself to being a full-time mum and housewife whilst
Roy was an engineer at Crewe Works. She did enjoy a little job in a chip shop at
one time, it was also on Underwood Lane, convenient for home, just two doors down
and no doubt her bubbly character surfaced as she nattered to all the customers.
Roy was a much quieter, unassuming chap who liked his home comforts, he loved
fishing and often took John and Christine with him in his side car. Christine tells me
she lived in Essex but used to spend many school holidays in Crewe with her nan,
auntie Bet, Uncle Roy and John and it was lovely to hear that some of her best
memories were of those special times.
Betty and Roy made good use of the free train passes and whenever the opportunity
arose, they took John and Christine out for the day. John developed a passion for
trains from spending many happy hours at the station and travelling miles in the
carriages watching the ever-changing scenery speeding past the window. When
Kerry and Louise came along, they too waited with excitement on the platform ready
to board the train with Betty, Roy and John for their frequent trips to the seaside.
Betty was extremely outgoing and lived life to the full, she thrived in company and
had varied interests. In the eighties, she joined the Young Housewives yoga class.
In later life she took up painting and proudly displayed some of her artwork on the
walls at home for everyone to admire. Christine was so inspired, she started to paint
too but then Christine and Betty had so many shared interests, they loved spending
time together, shopping, going to bingo organised by the local pub in aid of St Luke’s
and they always enjoyed a good old natter and giggle in the car whilst Christine’s
John drove; that was always a treat for Roy as he never liked driving.
And what about holidays?

Other than their honeymoon in Jersey, Betty and Roy never had the desire to go
abroad, they did like to go to Scotland and Betty especially enjoyed the coach trips
with her pals from the painting class or with Christine and the two Johns but the most
memorable for Betty was when her dear friend Betty visited from Australia and they
admired the Yorkshire countryside by coach and stayed in a lovely hotel there.
Betty developed vascular dementia not long after she lost her beloved Roy, I didn’t
want to make this tribute about the battle she fought with the disease – I wanted to
focus on remembering the woman she was and the lives she touched.