Christine Daynes

In loving memory of Christine Daynes who sadly passed away at 11.55 pm on 6th April, 2024.

Christine was born on 14th September, 1936 in Norwich, Norfolk to Hilda and Herbert Howes. She was the youngest of their three children, having two older brothers Eric and Bryan.

In the second World War Christine had a very near escape as a bomb came through the roof of her house, through her bed and ended up in the kitchen floor failing to explode. Christine would always talk about this time and how her dad flung her under the table to protect her and the family.

Christine grew up and went to the Gurney Henderson School in Norwich. From a young age she loved dancing and attended regular tap dancing lessons. On leaving school she managed to get herself a job with Boulton and Paul Ltd. as a comptometer operator.

Through her love of dancing Christine met her late husband Tony who was in the RAF, at a local dance. It wasn't long after this that they married on the 28th April, 1956 and  had their first child Julie on the 23rd November, 1956. Tony then got posted to Christmas Island where they were testing the atomic bombs and Christine stayed with Julie at her mum and dads in Norwich . On his return he was then posted to Malaya and then Singapore for two and a half years. This time Christine and Julie went with him.

On their return to England they stayed with Christine's mum and dad in Norwich until they were posted to Bassingbourn. This was when Christine had her second child Kevin. After one more posting to Bicester in Oxfordshire they were posted to Laarbruch in Western Germany for a year and a half. While out in Germany Christine's mum, dad and brother Eric and wife Jean visited her for a holiday, narrowly missing a devastating tornado that was following up behind them.  They returned to England in 1967 when Tony retired from the RAF. They managed to get a new council house near Christine's mum and dad. Tony started a new career working for Everest double glazing. Due to Tony's ability to sell he was promoted to an area manager and the family then moved again, this time to Chingford in Essex. It was here that they bought their first house. Christine loved this house and her dad being a builders foreman came up to help with the decorating. Christine would spend a lot of her time with friends she had made. They would have regular coffee mornings and Tupperware parties. Christine decided that she would like to do something better with her time so Tony bought her a small ladies and children's clothing shop in Highams Park, which she did really well with.  Shortly after this Tony's job took a turn for the worst and they had to sell the house and moved into a town house in Woodford Green. It wasn't long before they had to sell this as well and decided to take on public house training. On completion of their training they were given a public house to run in Brixton, London. Christine enjoyed arranging functions from Easter bonnet competitions to a family BBQ but the public house business was hard work and long hours. It was at this time that Christine's life took a turn for the worst as things didn't work out well and they ended up having several moves before settling in Brentford. Tony had gone back to double glazing and Christine has started working for BHS as a supervisor.

On October 9th 1985 Christine received the devastating news that Tony had died in a car accident.  This changed Christine's life totally. She continued to work for BHS until it's collapse. Then she got herself a job on Heathrow Airport where she worked in the Drug Store doing 12 hour shifts as a supervisor and then later in Glorious Britain Souvenir shop as the manager. While working here Christine had her first foot operation and before returning to work she took herself off on a coach touring holiday around Europe. It wasn't long after this that Christine decided to retire so that she could spend more time with ever growing family of nine grandchildren and eventually eighteen great grandchildren. She loved them all dearly and would never forget a birthday even with the onset of dementia, right up to becoming ill. She would write everything down in her diary that she had done and had a calendar sitting on her coffee table right in front of her to remind her of  everything she needed to do.

Over the years Christine had several operations on her hands, feet and knees but it was after her last knee operation in September, 2023 that she started to become ill. Christine had hoped that the knee operation would give her a new lease of life  but instead she found it increasingly difficult to walk straight and eventually agreed to having a walking stick after having several dizzy spells. This didn't stop Christine from getting on buses to various shopping centers. She would regularly pay her bills at the post office, get her shopping and visit her favorite shop M&S for coffee and something to eat. Then back home in time for her soaps on the telly.  After having her flu and covid jabs she became ill with a flu like virus which left her with a very chesty cough. At Christmas 2023 she went to her daughter Julie's  with her son Kevin.  She had lost a considerable amount of weight and her clothes hung on her. She still had an irritating cough and ate very little. With continuous prompting from her daughter she eventually made a doctors appointment. The doctor sent her to the hospital for a chest x-ray and on Friday 2nd February, 2024 she got on two buses and took herself to the South West Middlesex Hospital unaware that this was the last time she would see her home. The chest x-ray showed she had a considerable amount of fluid on her lung so they kept her in, put in a chesty drain and put her on oxygen.

After being in hospital for a week having various x-rays and scans they diagnosed her with Mesothelioma, cancer of the plura but as her dementia was getting increasingly worse she failed to take in what the doctor had told her. She then contracted covid and was isolated in a room on her own for ten days. The chest was still being drained but now had the added complication of infection. After eight weeks of them trying various antibiotics and five chest drains they were about to try one last procedure to try and stop the fluid building up in her lung. It was then that the palliative care nurses spoke to Julie and Kevin about after life care and it was agreed that she had been put through enough already.

Christine was then transferred to Meadow House Hospice on Wednesday 3rd April, 2024 and it was on Saturday 6th April, 2024 at 11.55 pm that she gave up her fight for life, passing away with her two children Julie and Kevin at her bedside.