2021: Celebration for Carol

Date:                      Saturday 6 November

In aid of:                 The Aurora Centre, Worksop and Bassetlaw Hospice, Retford

Amount raised:       £2,566

Total to date:           £41,928

A special evening celebrating the life of our sister Carol who died from cancer on 29 March this year.  Although she had endured several major illnesses and many health traumas and operations over the last 20 years of her life she remained upbeat and optimistic.

Carol loved her family and loved the times we all got together in noisy, boisterous gatherings - so many of them over the years!  

She was feisty and fearless - even from a young age when she used to say to Julie - 'Hold my glasses' before she waded in to duff up whoever had done wrong to her or her siblings! 

And she was fiercely loyal to her friends - many of whom she had known since childhood and many others that she had collected along the way through her life. She loved nothing better than spending time with them laughing, eating, drinking and chatting - she was a social animal!

She loved her school job.  She had a quiet concern for all of her students - no prejudice, no preconceptions just a desire to help them achieve their potential - and in turn her students loved her.

Cancer may have robbed us of our beautiful sister but we have so, so many memories...

We make no apologies for the huge number of pictures on this blog 😁  Amongst all the usual family photo snappers we had 4 photographers taking great pics so they are all included. 

Just be grateful that we didn't include the 647 pictures from the slideshow (though we have included some).. 🤣 Enjoy...

Many of our events were fancy dress but Carol very rarely wore a wig - she liked to keep her hair looking good.. 😁

Carol and Julie doing 'The Bump' - it was always 'their' dance lol.

This pic was a present from Beechy and Jules many years ago and still hangs in Wendy's home. It reminded Ian of us (don't know why lol) and was just a standard canvas called the Beach Babes but it was retitled The Roberts' Girls and each sun bathing beauty has a sister's name written on them like a tattoo.  The little dog has Robin's name written on his bandana 😁 

Despite all our name changes we still all regard ourselves as Roberts 💕 - we always have and always will!

When Robin built a new garden shed we buried a time capsule in the concrete footings and we all added our hand prints.

All of these sibling pictures - and many more - appeared in the slideshow which we left running all through the evening.  Carol was our own Mrs Bucket - and always the poser ready to have her picture taken so we had no shortage of photo materials! 

We planned our evening to reflect the things that we knew Carol liked, making it a social and fun event - and we know that we would have her full approval on everything that we did!

Julie and Ian had done a great job as usual in dressing the room with crisp white tablecloths and pink organza runners.  Table centres were special bottles filled with a long stemmed rose and gypsophilia.

The foyer was filled with loads of pictures of Carol with family and friends.

Carol had a glass of rosé (rosy 😁) just as she liked in her latter years but we forgot the jelly babies 🙄

The table centerpieces were beautifully decorated wine bottles - made by Julie and personalised for Carol on the front and back - we could just imagine her laughing when she read the little 'once upon a time' story.. 💕

Ian acquired a young assistant who wouldn't leave his side and just wanted to be on the decks.

We had a lovely crowd of 145 guests who filled the room - many of them our regulars who knew Carol from over the years but also some of her friends from school and other jobs and places.

Wendy gave a speech - well she did after she remembered what she wanted to say lol. 

She said that their first event had been arranged after the death of their father - to raise money for charity for the BHF and celebrate the life of their dad. It was only planned as a one-off event but everyone enjoyed it so much that the family were asked to organise more.

That was 19 years ago and since then the family has hosted at least one charity event each year (apart from covid!) and to date their fundraising has raised just under £40k for local charities such as the BHF, St Giles Special School, Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance, the Special Care Baby Unit, the Coronary Care Unit and the Breast Cancer Unit - all at Bassetlaw Hospital. 

All monies raised on the night were to be divided between the Aurora Centre in Worksop and Bassetlaw Hospice in Retford - both of them used by Carol and the siblings knew that she would thoroughly approve of their choices.

She said that it was also important to remember others who had been involved with cancer at any stage or level as the affects of a diagnosis spread like ripples on a pond through family and friends to places you hadn't even thought about.

The family wanted everyone to enjoy the evening just as Carol would have enjoyed a night out -  with eating, drinking, dancing but above all laughing, chatting and enjoying time with friends and family. 

CHEERS CAROL!

As a last note Wendy said that in memory of Carol - who loved her sweets and chocolates - a winning ticket had been placed under the chair of one person on each table. The lucky person could collect a box or tin of sweets but they had to share lol - so basically they were just the runner for the table 🤣

Ian organised a game of stand up bingo which went really well. Lots of tickets sold.

As always it was a quick rush to add up the cash from the ticket sales so we could work out what percentage to give as a prize.

They took their stand up bingo very seriously - well there was £100 prize money involved!  Eyes down!

A tasty buffet was served to each table.

Then it was time for a dance.  Great music as usual from our DJ Beechy.

More pics from our photographers...

Loads of raffle prizes - people were very generous and bought lots of prizes with them as they arrived so the raffle tables were very full!

There was a spontaneous round of applause when Ian read out the note attached to this beautifully carved bowl.  So lovely.

We sold so many raffle tickets that everyone had to muck in to get them all folded.

A few more pics of family and friends from the slide show.  So many memories!..

The slide show ran on a loop through the evening - Carol loved looking back at old photos and would have given a running commentary on every single picture 🤣

It was an emotional evening but so worth it to have such fabulous feedback from everyone about their memories of Carol and the whole family.  

Carol touched so many lives and she lives on in so many hearts.

On behalf of Wendy, Julie, Robin, Cathryn and our families thank you to everyone who helped us to celebrate the life of a lovely woman - Our sis Carol!..x

Update: On 29 March 2022 - exactly one year after Carol lost her fight with cancer Julie, Cathryn and I were able to present cheques for £1,283 to both Bassetlaw Hospice and the Aurora Well Being Centre.