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| Rene at the Boxing Day 10, 2012 |
Our thoughts are best wishes are with Rene's family at this sad time.
Rene's funeral will be taking place at the Harwood Park Crematorium at 3.30 on 3rd July and then afterwards at the central methodist chuch in Letchworth. All are welcome.
There is a just giving page in Irene's memory and there will be the opportunity to donate on the day.
The page is http://www.justgiving.com/remember/73245/Irene-Stacey and the proceeds will be split between the regional Air Ambulance and MIND.
Irene Stacey - a tribute
I can remember joining the Hitchin Nomads over
thirty years ago. The club held a regular social night at the Settlement
in Letchworth on a Monday evening. As a schoolboy of only modest years
it was quite daunting to enter into a room full
of adults.
I shouldn't have worried, the club was extremely
welcoming. Some great names remain with me from that era, people who
were the source of that friendliness.
Irene Stacey was very much one of
those names. Although she was never known to me by
that name. I joined around about the time that her grandson, Brian. Being young, it just felt wrong to call Irene by her name, to
Brian she was gran, but this also seemed wrong. To me, and my fellow
“school persons” of that era, she was “Supergran”.
This was a most appropriate name, describing the sort of person she was
– super. On those club nights she was always keen to hear what us
youngsters were doing, how the cycling was going and how it was when she
was youngster. It soon became apparent that
for Supergran life was to be lived, and whilst the body may not be
young as it once was the mind could be.
As I became older, it was clear that Supergran saw
age as no impediment to doing anything in life and she would do things with as much
energy as someone half her age. There was a spirit and enthusiasm within her that
can only be envied: always ready to offer encouragement,
to talk, and to help.
People mattered to her, she put a lot into
activities helping others, even well into her advancing years. To not
assist or get involved was not her way, she did not want a quite
retirement, she did not want to be old. Age was really
just a number – what mattered was what you did. This was shown in her
becoming a TV star not so long ago in a documentary about another legend
of the club, Harold Briercliffe. I recall watching the telly and being
quite proud that I knew her.
She will be missed, but her spirit and enthusiasm for life and cycling will continue.
Jamie Tomlin
