Christine Chesterfield
A Tribute given at her thanksgiving service by Barry Poultney
Christine Chesterfield, an only child, was born in 1927. Her father ran a garage and mother worked in a lingerie shop. She went to boarding school at the age of nine and left age 17 just as the Second World War ended. Sadly her mum died when Christine was 11. She enjoyed music and sat piano and elocution exams but only played what she liked. Christine loved music particularly classical and enjoyed listening to the radio; she also sang in the Bach Choir, She touted (her word, not mine!) round local offices in Leamington and Warwick for typing and shorthand jobs, and in a lifetime of office work always did her best but never wished to be a career girl. She spent time as a mother’s help in Hertfordshire and thought she was in heaven. She moved around living with a friend from St Mark’s, in a Christian Alliance Women’s Guild property and with family. Her aunt and uncle gave her a room but she was frightened of mice, so they solved this problem by giving her a cat!! She lived in Coniston Road for many years before moving to Eversleigh Nursing home when she could no longer manage by herself. Christine had boyfriends, she said: ’ all she wanted was someone to fall in love with’ and added, ‘no such luck’. She missed her mum but had some very good friends. Christine cycled a great deal and usually holidayed in Youth Hostels. In 2003 she went to the USA, she enjoyed the trip but declared she preferred train travel to flying.
She became a Christian at 21 and never got up in the morning without a prayer. She came to St Mark’s in 1946, and taught in Sunday School, sang in the choir, was a member of Craft Group, Mothers’ Union, Outlook and was a stalwart of our weekly prayer meeting. When she could no longer get to church we took the meeting to her house and more recently to Eversleigh Care Home. She prayed daily for family, friends, church and the world; in the past two years she prayed constantly for the staff, guests and families at Eversleigh, Her many Bibles were falling apart, a good sign that the owner isn’t, and were full of underlined passages and comments like YES in the margins.
Memories of Christine would be incomplete without reference to her comfortable but casual style of dress, i.e. many layers and colours, her simple taste in food, ‘I like food that is not mucked about with’ usually tea, sandwiches and biscuits, and of course her inexhaustible supply of chocolate, extra strong mints and jelly beans. She knew her mind and could be quite outspoken at times including once not too long ago when she told her doctor she was ready to meet her maker and he could keep his ’little sweeties’ as she described his pills. Christine trusted her whole life to God. A few days before she died she said to me, ‘We are all God’s children, I am His and he is mine.’ She was certain that death was not the end, rather the beginning. She knew where she was going, and I know she would want us to consider the question – do we? With her passing the world is a little less colourful, but she is now where she longed to be.