In loving memory of Diane Williams who sadly passed away on 20th August 2023.
Diane was born in York on 2nd May 1957 and was the older sister to Marie, Richard and Julia. She attended Scarcroft Road Junior School before moving to Burton Stone Lane Secondary Modern School.
When she left school in 1974 she started work at City Electrical Factors as a junior clerk. Then in 1975 she moved to work at the Railway Offices in Holgate Road as punched card operator. Diane has always wanted to work in child care and decided to emigrate to Canada and left England in 1978 when she was 21 to start a new life as a nanny in Canada, working in Toronto. After working for a number of different families over ten years, she started to work for Star Data Systems (later taken over by CGI) as a data analyst working as a script writer, writing test scripts for changes to the system that the company produced. She became a Canadian citizen in 1986.
She met Pete Grisold and in 1991 they were married and continued to live in Toronto. Pete was an exhibition set installer. However, things did not work out as planned and they divorced in 2005. Diane decided to return to England in May 2016 after 38 and a half years in Canada. The company had transferred her work to India and so she decided to come “home” as she called it. She came back and lived in a few places before she settled in Lovell House in Acomb. Diane was a cat lover and had a number of cats whilst in Canada. When she came back to England, she brought Rogue her cat with her and they were very happy together.
Diane found some seasonal employment in Marks and Spencer at the Vanguard shopping centre in the 2016 Christmas season which became a permanent position. She worked there until she retired earlier this year, making many good friends during her time there.
Diane had a number of health issues over the years. In 2001 she had a brain bleed (or a brain bomb in her words) which required very specialist treatment which was only “guaranteed” for 10 years – so she defied all the expectations! Then in 2011 one of her toes went black and she was diagnosed with a gene disorder which meant that she was on medication for the rest of her life.
Diane was a very generous person, always willing to help out where she could but she was also a “no-nonsense” person. Being a cat lover, Diane devoted some of her time to working in the Cats Protection shop in Haxby.
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