Rita Mary Tutty (28 Mar 1939 - 21 Mar 2020)

Rita Mary Read was born on the 28th of March 1939 to Tom and Gladys Read. Rita had a brother Dennis Read who was a couple of years older. Rita was born at home in Bourne. Rita went to Abbey Road Primary School from 1943 to 1950 then she went to Bourne Secondary Modern (now known as Bourne Academy) from 1950 to 1955.
After she left school Rita went to work at Bourne Railway station as a Booking Clerk. Whilst Rita was working at the Bourne Railway station, she met John Tutty. At that time, he was a Fireman on the trains from Sleaford, little did they know that they would be seeing a lot more of each other throughout the years. A couple of years later Rita moved to Peterborough with her family to help her dad who was the manager at the local co-op. Around this time she began working at Peterborough Railway station as a Goods Agent. On the 4th of April 1961 Rita married John Tutty at Stanground Church, on this snowy day Rita become Rita Mary Tutty. John and Rita moved into their house in Peterborough that became their forever home. This year would have been their 59th wedding anniversary.
Rita continued to work at Peterborough Railway Station until 1965 when she decided to focus on having a family. In August 1965 Rita and John had their first child Kelvin. Rita continue to be a stay at home mum to care for Kelvin as John was a Train driver and couldn’t spend a lot of time at home with the family. In November 1967 Rita gave birth to their second child Andrea. Once Andrea was at school Rita decided to go back to work, she got a job as an Office Clerk at the British Gas Head Office in Peterborough down Padholme Road.
Rita’s hobbies around this time where line dancing, shopping and making wedding cakes, she was also attending church very regularly and was a member of the local Women’s Guild. In October 1988 Kelvin got married to Frances and shortly after they had their first little boy Sean born July 1989, Rita was so excited that she was a Nanny to her first grandchild. In the early 1990’s Rita decided to retire to become a full time Nanny to her grandchild. Shortly after Rita retired her second grandchild was born Liam in May 1991. A couple of years later her third grandchild was born Andrew in October 1995. Rita doted over her 3 grandsons and would spend every moment possible with them.
In May 1998 Andrea got married to Allan, this resulted in the birth of Rita’s first Granddaughter Kristy in January 2000. When Rita found out that her 4th grandchild was a girl she was over the moon as she was able to buy all the girly stuff that she couldn’t buy for the boys. Also, around this time John retired from being a train driver to spend more time with the family.
After John retired Rita and John travelled a lot, their favourite places where Guernsey and Portugal, but they also travelled a lot to Spain as that was where Andrea and family lived from 2002-2010. In August 2004 Bob Horne was born making him Rita’s 5th grandchild.
In 2017 Rita’s daughter became her full-time carer as a result of poor health and Rita needing extra support around the house. It took 2 years to get Rita back to her old self. During this time Rita received help for Cardiac district nurses, who were amazing and really helping Rita to improve her health.
In March 2019 Rita celebrated her 80th birthday by having afternoon tea at the Bull Hotel in Peterborough. During the next year Rita did so much and she was finally becoming the person that her family knew and loved again. Her hobbies during this time where listening to music, knitting, shopping and doing puzzles.
In February 2020 Rita attended Ambulatory Care unit at Peterborough Hospital for antibiotics every day due to an infection. Eventually they found that the antibiotics where not working, so she was admitted into hospital for close observation and antibiotics. Rita was discharged from hospital on the 13th of March 2020 for a further week of Ambulatory Care Unit antibiotics. The team where amazing, they made her feel special and they always made time for a laugh and joke with her.
On Saturday the 21st of March Rita was admitted back into A&E short stay. Sadly, Rita Mary Tutty passed away suddenly at 18:30 in the company of her family at Peterborough Hospital as a result of Heart Failure.
She will be sadly missed by all her family and friends. Beloved wife of John, loving mum to Kelvin and Andrea and doting Nanny to Sean, Liam, Andrew, Kristy and Bob.
Rita Tutty’s Funeral will be the 7th of April at Peterborough Crematorium, sadly because of the current situation the funeral is for close family only. But feel free to donate, leave a message or light a candle in memory of Rita Mary Tutty. All donations will be going to British Heart Foundation.