Eileen Ann Nixon

“Your life was a blessing, your memory a treasure.”

Eileen passed away in the care of Green Gables Care Home in Congleton on 23rd August aged 84 years.

Eileen Nixon
Lovingly known as Ei, she was a strong, determined lady who could be stubborn and
knew her own mind, the song My Way wouldn’t have been out of place but it is little
wonder bearing in mind her early childhood.
Anyone who met Ei would have become a friend very quickly, she had the knack of
extracting someone’s life story in less than twenty minutes. She certainly loved to
chat!
In July 2021 Ei fell and broke her hip and though she did return home briefly she
soon went back into hospital with a series of infections, she became bedridden and
in January 2022 moved into the Greengables care home in Congleton, where she
received excellent care, and the family are incredibly grateful to Sue the nurse and
all the carers who cared for her until she passed peacefully on the 23 rd of August,
comforted by her having her beloved daughter Annette with her at the end of her life.
Words can’t express how much Ei meant to her family and friends and how much
she loved Annette, Kevin, Gareth and Phillip. She was simply over the moon with
her great grandchildren Gene and Ella, but to all children who came to see her,
whether they were niece’s or nephew’s or friend’s children and grandchildren, she
was always Nana Ei.
Remembering Eileen
May and Frank Riley were married 12 years before they were blessed with the birth
of their only daughter on 8 th March 1938 at 16 Dolly Road, Harper Hill in Buxton.
Sadly, when Eileen was just twenty months old her father died leaving Eileen and
her mother with a bleak future at a time when there was very little in the way of
benefits to help them. Eileen and her mum had no alternative but to leave their
beautiful home and move to a rundown terraced cottage with no bathroom. Pigeons
had been nesting in one of the bedrooms so May was given three months free rent
because of this.
Then when Eileen was four years old her mother married Alfred Wharton, who had a
son Ron aged thirteen. Eileen always looked on Ron as her big brother and loved
him very much. Even in later life, she still remembered growing up with Ron and the
wonderful annual holidays they spent in Blackpool as a family. They all loved to see
the shows after their evening meal.
Years later when Ron married, he and his wife Dorothy had a boy called Geoff and
Eileen was delighted to have the honour of being his godmother. Ron and Dorothy
went on to have their daughter Barbara, who Eileen thought the world of.
Back to her childhood days, Ei attended the village school and made many good
friends who she kept in touch with over the years – unsurprisingly even from an early
age Eileen was an incurable chatterbox and always in trouble for talking.
In her free time from school, she liked to go to her troupe dance group, and they
would perform at the Wells Dressings in Buxton.

At the age of fifteen, Eileen finished her education and after leaving Silverlands
Secondary Modern for Girls in Buxton, she became an apprentice hairdresser and
met her lifelong friend Freda Bentley.
Ei’s first job as an apprentice was to keep the fire stoked to ensure the salon never
ran out of hot water. On a Saturday after finishing work Ei and Freda normally
caught the train into Manchester where they enjoyed shopping.
Ei started writing to Bill after seeing a pen pal advert in the paper and when it
became time to meet up she found herself having to make a choice between two.
Freda advised her to pick the soldier, and eighteen months later Ei married the love
of her life William – or Bill as he was fondly known.
They settled down to married life in Crewe where Bill worked as a fitter in the
Railway Works. Their first house was in Wallis St and their neighbours Joyce and
Jim, and Phil and Margaret soon became very good friends.
Ironically as fate would have it, years later Joyce and Jim’s son David went on to
marry Annette’s best friend Anne – who would have thought it when Annette, Anne
and David were just a twinkle in their parent’s eyes!
Just over nine months after exchanging their lasting vows, Ei and Bill welcomed
Annette into the world and Ei heard one of her relatives say that she would soon
have a brood, well it seems even then Ei was strong minded and thought she’d
prove them wrong – and sure enough Annette was an only child, but their absolute
pride and joy.
As they became more affluent Bill started driving lessons and after he passed, they
bought a very luxurious Ford Consul with leather seats, and it wasn’t long before Ei
also passed her test which gave her the freedom to visit her parents more often and
they were also able to have day trips and go on holiday. Several years later they
bought a caravan, but that didn’t go well when the caravan ended alongside them on
the M6.
When Annette was five, Ei returned to work and her manager at Wakefields Army
and Navy Store in Crewe always said she could sell snow to the eskimo’s. She
certainly had the gift and did love the job but was expected to work most Saturday’s
so in order to spend more time with Annette, Ei made the decision to leave the store
and work part time as a Domestic at Crewe Teaching College and then Leighton
Hospital.
During their time at Cheltenham Crescent Ei became very good friends with Barbara
and Wilf Plevin across the road and Annette got on well with their daughter Anne, all
very special and lifelong friends.
Barbara, Terry and their daughter Deb lived next door and they were the best
neighbours you could wish for.
Ei and Bill loved hosting parties at home and sent both Annette and Anne to a disco
at St Barnabas’s which is where Annette met Kevin. He very quickly became a
regular visitor and over the years he became like a son to Ei and Ei was just like a
second Mother to Kevin.

Having bought a house, Kevin and Annette married on her eighteenth birthday. Ei
was absolutely thrilled when her grandsons were born, first Gareth then nearly six
years later Phillip. Ei loved them both to bits and used to laugh at the tales and
secrets they shared with her.
When Ei’s Mum died her Stepdad Alf moved into an annex that Bill and Ei had built
for him but after a while Alf remarried and moved out.
This gave them the opportunity of letting out the annexe and in doing so, they had
many male actors from the theatre. Ei found it funny that they use to remark how
nice Bill smelt, but not her! After that they had a few longer-term residents and as
Margaret was only twenty when she came to them, Ei took it on herself to take her
under her wing and even when Margaret left, she often visited and remained a very
special friend for both Ei and Bill.
Ei and Bill were never short of friends; it is impossible to mention everyone. They
got to know their special friend Bruno through Bill’s Brother Dave, and later they had
the pleasure of getting to know his partner Pam. Bruno never visited unless he
fetched cake…. how wonderful to have friends with added benefits!
EI met Pauline, one of her closest at the family planning clinic. Ei and Bill loved to
go to dances at Royce’s Starlight Ballroom on a Saturday night and knew many
people there. She also became very friendly with Del, whose husband worked with
Bill, and they went on holiday together.
When Annette and Kevin moved to Woodland Gardens, Ei and Bill soon followed
and spent twenty-five years living an idyllic life. They had a lovely garden which they
both enjoyed and spent happy times in Ibiza and Malta where Ei’s cousin Brenda
had retired.
Ei also looked forward to family get togethers at the Old Hall and sometimes the
Beefeater in Crewe where she would catch up with Isobel and Colin, Alan and Lyn,
Shirley and Arthur, David and Jane, Kevin and Jan.
Living so close they were lucky that they were able to see their grandsons most
days, they would go for tea after school and Ei said that most children would want to
watch children’s TV, but for Gareth it was horse racing on channel 4!
In 2011 Bill was diagnosed with mesothelioma and given eight months to live. With
Eileen’s care he managed to live for almost five years. Ei was always grateful to
Bill’s carer’s Joy and Diane and St Luke’s for the support they gave her.
However, the toll on Ei had been immense. She missed Bill greatly and became a
shadow of her former self, so much so that we were worried she might not recover.
With sheer determination, she did rally and lived a more restricted life, but she loved
the frequent visits from her friends, especially Barbara on a Sunday and Joyce when
Tony came to visit. Her cleaner Elaine and daughter Rebecca were a huge help
through what proved to be a difficult time.
Simple things in life made Eileen content, she loved baking and got a huge amount
of pleasure from the lovely garden Bill had created.

Both of them doted on the dogs they had over the years Cindy, Chrissy, Meg and
Cassie who lived to be 17 and when they could no longer look after a dog, Annette’s
dogs Elvis and Nala filled the gap, she loved to see them both, Elvis always made
her laugh and she had a soft spot for Nala.
Nobody was in any doubt, Ei was the Matriarch of the family and as it has been said
already, Phillip was the only one who could ever tell her off when necessary!
Ei suffered from ill health most of her adult life, but this never stopped her, she was
always sociable, vivacious, loved to laugh, liked a drink in her early years, made
many, many friends, never regretted moving to Crewe. she was a loving wife,
Mother, Grandmother and Great Grandmother who will be sadly missed.

A service to celebrate Eileen’s life will take place on Thursday 8th September in The Crematorium Chapel Crewe at 11.30am followed by cremation.

Donations in memory of Eileen will be gratefully received on behalf of St Lukes Hospice.

For any further information please telephone 01270 584447