Linda McKenna

“Not just today but a lifetime through, we will always treasure memories of you.”

Linda sadly passed away at home on 31st July, aged 71 years.

Linda McKenna, Claire’s beloved mum fondly known to many as Lyn was much loved and respected by all who were fortunate enough to know her.

Linda was an astute lady whose life was characterised by strength and substance.  She was thoughtful and generous with her time and love, incredibly caring – totally devoted to her dear mum Florence who she looked after for years.

She was always incredibly kind and naturally put everyone first whether it be family, friends or work.  Unbelievably hard working, she worked forty to fifty hours a week for years but as soon as she got home, she would go straight round to her mum’s house to make sure she was ok and had everything she needed.

With a heart of pure gold, Linda was the default ‘go to person’ if anyone needed anything – she would give you her last penny if she could and it wasn’t that long ago, she kindly made sure a young family had food when they couldn’t afford any.

Linda is and always will be much loved by Claire, she was a dear mum to the late Craig, extremely fond of son in law Jim and a doting nan to Max and Lucy.

Linda was also a dear sister to John, Diane, Janet, Valerie, Barry, Geoff, Julie and Darrell, a sister-in-law, auntie and great auntie and will be much missed by them all.

Remembering Linda

Linda was welcomed into the world in Crewe by her parents Jack and Florence Caldwell.  She attended Ludford Street School but also had a little part time job in a bakery on West Street.

Coming from a large family with many mouths to feed, money was always tight and like all nine children, she never had anything of her own, she even had to share a birthday with Geoff and Julie said it was first up – best dressed!

She was a proper Tom Boy and very sporty and it seems boys were always calling round to ask if she was playing out.  She was a member of a local netball team with her friend Angela and in the photograph featured in the Chronicle at the time, Linda was wearing a cardigan and thick black rimmed glasses like Olive from on the buses!

As she got older though, she was always very glamorous with false eyelashes and incredibly long hair beautifully swept back.

She had a passion for animals, as a youngster she always seemed to be covered in cat scratches and she kept lots of rabbits which she proudly entered into local shows.  In later life, she particularly doted on Claire’s dog Lola, taking her off for their usual walks around Queens Park and she often visited Barry and Jeanette with a bag of cheese and onion crisps for their dog Jaxon and she would go to Julie’s and ‘just happen’ to have a treat in her bag for Max the dog and she also loved looking after Geoff’s dog Ozzy – in fact, she regularly said she preferred dogs to people!

It wouldn’t have come as a big surprise to people if she had chosen a career working with animals but apparently, her ambition was to join the army and would have done had she not failed her medical due to fallen arches in her feet.

Instead, she worked in the printing industry for over fifty years and made a significant mark at Bowaters when she took them to an industrial tribunal and won a fight to get equal pay for the women.  Shortly afterwards she took redundancy and went to A.C.T Financial systems but left to start work at Delmar Press until she retired.

Linda did marry and had the two children but when her marriage broke down, Linda became a single parent to Craig and Claire, life was incredibly tough, she worked tirelessly around bringing them up and did everything she could to provide for them.

Despite the hardship’s she endured, her divorce in the late 80’s gave her a new lease of life and in time she started going to concerts, including the Nelson Mandela concert, Knebworth, she saw U2, Genesis and Wet Wet Wet and always enjoyed Motown and Northern Soul.

She also enjoyed holidays in Cyprus with her mum, John and Margaret and looked forward to the New Year’s Eve celebrations in Lytham with them every year.  When Claire started going on holiday with her own family, Linda was always excited to hear all the stories when they got home.

Claire’s thoughts of a wonderful Mum:

We all dream of having a mother who is kind, loving, and genuine. My Mum was exactly that type of mother. During my early life she guided me through years of hardship, difficulty, joy, and achievement. My Mum was the foundation of my family and worked long hard hours to provide what she could.

On occasions she could be challenging, spirited and somewhat reactive, I hope that’s a nice way of saying you knew exactly what she thought – sometimes a look was all it took! But she was who she was and I loved her.

Life wasn’t always easy and we had a lot of extremely tough years, but whatever life threw at us, Mum and I always got through it together.

She was a survivor, she was strong, she was protective, and she was fiercely loyal and those are the qualities that I most admired.

I’ll miss her laugh, I’ll miss her smile, I’ll miss her rolling her eyes at me when I said something inappropriate.

I’ll miss her funny ways, for instance when I had been to the hairdressers, she would never say that looks nice, she would say…ooohh, it’s getting there isn’t it! I’m still not sure exactly where it was supposed to be getting too!!

Above anything else, I’ll miss her being here and miss her being my Mum!

A service to celebrate the life of Linda will take place on Wednesday 24th August at Crewe crematorium at 10am, followed by cremation.

For further information please contact our funeral home on 01270 584447.