Lucie Florence Bates (Passed away 20 Oct 2016)

In loving memory of Lucie Florence Bates who sadly passed away on 20th October 2016 aged 96. Lucie was raised in Halstead, Essex and moved to Braintree after her marriage to Dennis. She had a son, Tony, in 1940 and as a young mother she benefited from the support of her older neighbours in Challis Lane, where she spent most of her married life, before finally moving to Black Notley after the death of her husband Dennis. She worked hard all of her life, particularly so during the war years when, with her neighbours, she worked part time in fields and orchards picking crops. In later life she worked at Chapel Hill School as a classroom assistant, which she enjoyed immensely. These were probably her happiest years. As happens, old age eventually meant that she could no longer live independently and she moved to a care home in Dame Elizabeth Walk, Halstead, which completed her journey though life because, from her room she could see across the field to the house in Upper Fenn where she had grown up.