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Today we reflect on the way in which God’s hand was upon Peggy Smith  throughout her long life and we give God thanks for the uniqueness that was hers.
The death of someone close to us can bring about a lot of changes in our lives, changes we may feel ill-prepared to make. Peggy’s death will mean changes for her family and for those who lived with her but at the same time there is so much about which we can rejoice.
Peggy has a legacy in the Epsom United Reformed Church going back many years to when she moved to Epsom with her husband. Peggy has always ‘been here’, supporting the church community in a variety of ways. She has been part of the Women’s Fellowship and regularly attended church meetings and Sunday worship for as long as she could, and then a little more.
Along with Ivy Trueman and Lynne Lewis, she began what is now a Parent and Toddler Group, which is still going strong after all these years. Peggy was an upright sort of person, with a regal bearing, perhaps not unlike the Queen Mother. She took great care with her appearance and never failed to look elegant, even when she had to wear ‘sensible shoes’ in her last few years. She managed to be elegant and dignified even when she was enjoying a good joke or using a stick.
I remember Peggy with a smile on her face, greeting people with a warm welcome, making them feel relaxed wherever she was. She was often seen wearing pink clothing, or perhaps mauve or lilac, looking serene and calm. She never seemed to get her feathers ruffled or to get in a flap about things, just carried on being herself and getting along as best she could.
Today we can give thanks for all that she was to her family and to her friends, for her long life, for her pleasant disposition and gentle dignity, and that she has been spared lengthy illness and pain in her latter years. In her latter years, Peggy needed more care and she was blessed with a caring family and with the staff of the Sunrise nursing home where she lived. She made much of her life and opportunities and we are privileged to have known her.
Today we give thanks for the gift of Peggy’s life, but this is also an opportunity to thank God for what we are given, and to refocus our lives on the things that matter most in life. Amen.
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