Marie Cook (4 Dec 1930 - 29 Feb 2024)

In loving memory of Marie Cook who sadly passed away at the end of February 2024.

Marie was born the pre-war 1930's in South London. During the war she was evacuated to the southwest of England, later moving back to London. She and her mother were bombed out and their cat was blown throw the wall but survived, albeit a bit different afterwards. During the war she took an interest in ballet and was involved in ENSA, entertaining troops. She met her future husband, Jeremy Cook through a church club and they married in the mid 1950's. Their son, Tony was born in the early 1960's in Crawley. When Jeremy got a job as Boscombe Down they moved to Winterslow, Wilshire, then to Wilton, before moving to Surrey in the late 1960's/early 1970's, at a place called Frimley, where they remained until the early noughties. A particular memory was badgers visiting eating food left out for birds outside the kitchen. The badgers became so tame that they came right up to the open kitchen door with Marie sitting there putting food on the door step.

At Frimley, the family got into the hobby of Astronomy, particular after meeting Sir Patrick Moore, the TV astronomer. Marie was an excellent astronomer, specializing in the Moon and she even wrote a paper that was published in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association and would later become a member of the BAA council. Marie and Jeremy were also heavily involved in the local Reading Astronomical Society. Another hobby of their's was genealogy and this was perhaps a main reason why Marie and Jeremy moved to Mundesley, Norfolk in the early noughties to continue work looking into the Cook family tree, as the ancestors of the Cook family came from Norfolk. Alas Jeremy passed away shortly after they moved to Mundesley and Marie soldiered on for about twenty years. She befriended many locals, neighbours, the gardner, the window cleaner, the grocers and the local taxi service. Also took up an interest in watching Formula One racing. She mastered modern IT and stayed in touch with the family using the computer and Alexa. Even the bird table was eventually wired up for her with cameras, so when she became unable to walk far, or venture out into the garden , she could watch her feathered friends.

Alas, in April 2022 she was taken into hospital with Hiatal Hernia and Pneumonia, and although she fought off the latter, was in and out of care homes and hospital until her passing at the end of February. We had hoped that she would be made well enough to be returned home, perhaps with some NHS day visits, but this was unfortunately not to be. Her first Care Home was the nice Benjamin Court at Cromer, but regrettably they closed that down whilst she was away on another visit to hospital. She then was moved to Two Acres Care Home in Taverham, Nottingham, where she had her 92'nd birthday. Both cares homes were really excellent and she quickly settled in and made great friends with the wonderful staff at these places.

Over the last few months she was doing Ok in the two Acres Care Home, though was not getting out of bed much as we had hoped for. However, some days were better than others health wise. On the evening of the last day, she was quite talkative, when we communicated with her on the Alexa device, but unfortunately later in the evening she passed away all of a sudden.

She will be greatly missed by her son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, family and friends. Hopefully she has now met up with her husband, Jeremy Cook and is keeping him informed on the progress of the family and friends back down here on Terra Ferma.

N.B. For privacy purposes, on the Internet, the date of birth and death that you may find at the top of this obituary are not correct