It is with much sadness that we have to report that Margaret Simons (CLIP outreach worker) has passed away.  She has supported many people in recent years and helped them make positive changes.  I was one of those people.  When I first met Margaret I lacked confidence and thought my future looked bleak.  Margaret always found positives.  She encouraged me to join courses, and then help her with course administration, and last year she showed me a job advert and said I could do it. I had serious doubts but Margaret helped me with the application, drove me to my interview and looked after my children.  When I got the job I was surprised; Margaret wasn’t. The next day she came into the computer centre and sang “congratulations” to me.

At Margaret’s funeral her friend Jeni Summerfield read a lovely tribute, some of the highlights include :

“Her sense of fun was outrageous and infectious.  One day I popped into her office in the old building at Ferndale Road.  The office was abandoned like the ‘Marie Celeste’; not only were Margaret and Sandra missing but their chairs were gone too.  I heard a noise behind me and crossing to the old school hall found them using the computer chairs to race each other up and down the length of the hall.  Naturally, after I had done a quick risk assessment, I joined in!

She was fiercely committed to helping adults improve their lives, fiercely opposed to injustice and fiercely anti any kind of incompetence.  In other words she was fierce.  She was also funny, forthright, fabulous, down-to-earth, bold, sometimes brazen, and very brave.”  Now here we are many years later celebrating a magnificent life well lived, and I hope that one day she and I will meet again.     Submitted by Tracy Parker

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