In Memoriam Patricia Sherriffs

Alexander Morris served in the Royal Navy during the 2nd World War, and survived 14 days in a life boat after his ship was torpedoed. After being picked up by a German warship, he was held prisoner of war for 5 years.

Returning home to Blackburn after the war, he married his sweetheart Margaret, and in 1948 they had their first daughter Sheila.

Their second daughter Patricia was born in Blackburn 29 August 1953. She was always a happy child, who liked to entertain people with her singing and dancing. After school, she studied geography and trained as a teacher. One year of teaching at a school in Manchester was enough, and she decided to move to America.

There she went to art college and became an accomplished silversmith. Then working as a nanny, she got her green card and took her first steps into business, becoming involved in selling and commissioning academic books. As a beautiful young English girl in Washington, she received many offers of marriage, but didn't find the right person to settle down with, and after 8 years she moved back to England to be closer to her family.

By now an experienced sales professional, she started in the Word Processor business - this was the early 1980s, when such dedicated systems were common. Then moving to work for ICL and subsequently DEC, she was very successful, becoming a prize-winning corporate account manager. It was during this successful time that she began to indulge her passion for interior design.

In the 1990s, she moved with DEC to the North of England, closer again to her family. When DEC started to contract, she left them and took a job with British Telecom.

In 1996, she met Viv. She was to tell friends later that she knew immediately that he was 'the one'. When they decided to marry in 1997, they wanted to have the proper white wedding, but her Catholic church would not countenance marrying Viv, a divorced agnostic. Fortunately, a local Anglican vicar, Rev. Ken Burghall of St.Oswald's Church, Lower Peover, was much more understanding. He agreed to perform a full wedding service, though it was necessary to have the formal marriage ceremony at Macclesfield Register Office beforehand. The wedding day, 29th November 1997, was a joyous event.

As they each owned a house, it took some time before they were able to dispose of those and find a new house to share. Having previously only decorated a house for herself, Patricia now took great pleasure in creating a beautiful home for two. By this time, she had joined Viv's company as Director of Sales and Marketing, and was helping to grow the company, which had never previously had any professional sales expertise.

One day, only 20 months after the wedding, Viv arrived home late after a long day at the office, to find Patricia with a severe pain in the head. He rushed her straight to the local hospital, where she became unconscious within an hour. By 4 A.M. the doctors diagnosed an intra-cerebral haemorrhage, from which there could be no recovery. Patricia died in the afternoon of 5th August 1999, with her husband at her side.