Susanne Kay Ashley

Eulogy for Mrs Susanne Kay Ashley

Susanne Kay Voller was born on the 26th July 1956 in Walthamstow in East London. She was the eldest of two children born to Reg and Eileen Voller and had a younger sister Lorraine.
Being an East Ender Susanne always loved her pie, mash and liquor and of course there was nothing better than a plate of jellied eels.
Susanne had a happy childhood and was always a bright girl at school attending the Wood Green School in North London. She was always very good at art and crafts and she enjoyed her knitting, crochet and needlework throughout her life.
As you probably know Susanne was diagnosed with a heart problem as a child. She underwent many operations over the years which included replacement heart valves. This is all I am going to say about her illness as Susanne never wanted to let this disability affect her life. She was always positive and she never let this rule her life or her activities. Susanne was a person who loved life and her issues were not going to rule her life and stop her from doing what she wanted in life.
She left school at the age of seventeen. She wanted to get her A levels and go into nursing as this was her dream. She wanted to help people and this stems from the lovely people she had come in to contact with when they were treating her. The Nurse who delivered Paul, Lola emigrated to New Zealand but Susanne kept in touch and met her when in the UK and we hope Lola is watching from New Zealand now.
As you all know Susanne was always a people person who was always there to offer help, support and love to anyone who needed it. That was just in her make up that made Susanne such a very special lady and why once you were a friend of Susanne’s then you really were a friend for life.
Her first job was working for the Bank of England in the Securities division. She loved this job and one of her duties was to count the bars of gold bullion stored in the bank’s vaults.
However, once the bank realised about Susanne’s medical history, they announced that she couldn’t work for them permanently as she could not be accepted on to the pension scheme because of her health history. This was a shame as Susanne really liked working for the bank.
Susanne, then went to work for the Post Office in Telephone Accounts and she joined the new Office where she lived in Wood Green.
Working here was to change Susannes life for ever. This was where she met a good-looking young fella by the name of John Ashley. He was a very good looking, highly intelligent, dynamic and outstanding young man who was a real catch for Susanne. [There you are John I said everything you wanted me to say, that’s £20 you owe me, as agreed]
I will come back to this part of Susanne’s life shortly.
Susanne carried on working for the Post Office until she left to become a housewife and mum to her two boys. By this time Susanne and John had settled into their first Maisonette in Hoddesdon where they made life long friends with neighbours Phil and Steve and where they brought Paul home in 1979. They moved to their first house in Hoddesdon in 1981 and Mark came along in 1982. Needing a bigger house they moved out to Bishops Stortford in 1986 to the family home where the Boys grew up.
Susanne became a part time Bursar working at The Bishops Stortford High School where the boys were attending. She worked there until Mark left after A levels.
Susanne had always harboured a wish to go into nursing and she did apply to Brighton University later in life to undertake her nurse training. She was accepted but she never took up this opportunity.
She was now working at the EDGH as a ward clerk and after a while she went to work in the Paediatric department working in the admin department. Susanne loved her job and like everywhere else she had worked she had made so many wonderful colleagues and friends who are with us today.
Susanne stayed in this role until she eventually had to take ill health retirement resulting from the Pandemic. She always had a strong work ethic and this has been passed on to her boys.
I am now going to talk to you about what Susanne would have said was always the most important part of her life, all of you here today, her loving family and friends. She really did love and care for you all very much.
So going back in time to when I told you how Susanne and John had met at work, they fell in love and courted and then became engaged and after three years they married on the 20th August 1977 at St Mark’s church in Wood Green. Their Best Man Alan is here today and remained a lifelong friend to them both. This was the start of a very loving, happy and contented marriage that was to last for forty-four years until Susanne’s sad passing.
It was very true to say that their love for each other had never diminished in any way and that they were still as much in love with each other as when they first met and fell in love all those 47 years ago.
You see they were not only a very loving husband and wife but they were each other’s best friends as well and they were totally devoted to each other.
They went on honeymoon to Bournemouth and the weather was awful, so much so that they had to cut it short by a day to get out of the town before it got shut off because of the flooding.
Following their marriage John and Susanne soon started their family, firstly came Paul and then came Mark. The boys have nothing but very happy and contented memories of growing up in a home that was always full of love, happiness and laughter. They always knew that their mum and dad would support them in whatever they wanted to do in their lives.
The boys have so many happy memories and some of them include the wonderful holidays they had especially the many trips they had to Catalonia in Spain. They had been going they’re for twenty-six years and they had became very well known in the village where they stayed.
They were in fact treated as locals and Susanne was even accepted in to the illegally run ladies’ hair salon in the village, The door would open slightly and then Susanne was pulled through the door very quickly. The Salon was run by Dolores who was the Mother of Susannes favourite Beach Bar owners Sergi and Martha who became close friends over 20 years she went to a place she always called home.
She became part of the local lady’s hairdressing Mafia group!! Susanne’s hair always looked lovely, she always took great pride in her appearance.
The family have so many good friends in Spain including Paolo, Djalmo, Sandra, Puri and even the team at the local Butchers Pujol who always cheered when we arrived. Susanne was very proud of the fact that she and Paul are registered at the local Clinic for tests as locals.
Susanne always enjoyed her holidays and this included flying. When Susanne and John, with Paul, went to California for their 40th Wedding Anniversary Celebration trip of a lifetime it took eleven hours flying to America but it only took nine hours coming back home because of the tail winds. Susanne was devastated that she had lost out on two hours flying time and complained to the Virgin Crew on arrival at Heathrow who were staggered and said she was the only person who had ever complained a flight was early. She stayed awake all night during the flight watching the Moon over the Atlantic and said it was one of the happiest nights of her life.
She was very proud of the first big trip she organised for the family to visit Disney World in Florida in 1990 when the boys were young. Her passion was going to Spain every year for over twenty-six years and the next trip was always booked as she left. She loved visiting America including New York, San Francisco and California. It was in Lake Tahoe that Susanne had her steak and eggs for breakfast which she often spoke about.
They also had very happy breaks to France going with John and Lynne which were always full of fun and laughter. Another early holiday was when she booked for the family to go to Germany for the boys to practise their German and found themselves as VIPs as they were the only English people in a huge German holiday centre. All of these trips hold so many happy memories for Susanne, John and the boys. Susanne always made them all so memorable through her love of Travel.
As soon as one family holiday was over Susanne was planning their next trip. Everything was planned to the minutest detail. She so looked forward to them.
Christmas was always a very special and happy time with John and Susanne working hard to make sure the boys were happy and an early Christmas saw Susanne cook for over 20 guests. Susanne was a good cook so they always had plenty of lovely Christmas fare.
Susanne was creative with her cooking and liked to use her creative skills in her beloved garden. She loved the garden to be full of colour and vibrant. When the boys were small Susanne had a never-ending battle with the boys who loved to knock the heads off of her flowers with a football but they eventually grew out of this!! Paul and Mark had their Mum on the football touchline throughout their young life and she organised and ran the teas for all the parents. Susanne’s favourite flowers were always sunflowers hence the floral tribute on Susannes coffin.
Some of Susanne’s other hobbies and interest over the years included playing badminton where she broke John Hennessey’s nose and going line dancing with Lynne where she eventually passed her Gold Medal. Susanne loved music, especially music by Rod Stewart and Elbow and Susanne had an Elbow song ‘One day like this’ which she regarded as her theme tune and was her ring tone on her phone. The family have chosen this song for us to leave to today.
I mentioned Susanne’s phone which for many years was an old Nokia phone, in fact it was her original phone and when they did away with the old network cover her phone no longer worked but she was adamant that she didn’t want a fancy new phone.
But the boys got her an up-to-date Smart Phone and before they knew it Susanne was into social media, using WhatsApp and Twitter, there was no stopping her once she was up and running.
Susanne was always up for a laugh; she was always of a happy disposition and she enjoyed her life.
The most important part of her life though was always her loving husband and family. She really did love and care for them all so very much.
Susanne was so happy when Mark found love and happiness with Nicola, she loved to see them both so happy together and settled in their home in Polegate. Susanne used to enjoy it when the family visited Nicola’s parents Mark and Sonia and family in Swindon which they had done several times over the years.
Susanne always wanted to know what the boys were doing, she loved family get togethers.
Susanne was always the in charge of the family’s social diary and she loved making sure that they all had a very active life which has left them all with so many happy memories of all of their times and adventures they have all had over the years not only as a family but with all of their loving family and many friends.
Susanne was always a very hardworking, kind, caring and considerate lady who really would have done anything that she could to have helped anyone, especially her loving family and friends. She always had a smile on her face and she was of a happy disposition. Family always came first.
So, all of you here today, Susanne’s loving family and friends, were all so very important to her, she really did love and care for you all so very much.



Face Susanne’s coffin:
Susanne you were truly one in a million who could never be replaced, you will always be remembered with love and happiness and you will never be forgotten.
Susanne you were always a wonderful wife to John and the very best mum to your boys Paul and Mark, and Marks partner Nicola. You were loved so very much by all of your family and many friends.
Susanne you were a WONDERFUL PERSON and until we all meet again may you forever rest in peace.