Pat Thistlethwaite in 2012
Pat, The Weaver of Grass, lived a long and interesting life that contained many twists and turns and much joy. For a long time she was an English teacher, rising to become the Head of English in a tough comprehensive school in the city of Wolverhampton.
She was born in the early nineteen thirties in a farming village near Lincoln and finished her days in the Yorkshire Dales where she lived with her second husband, a dairy farmer called David Thistlethwaite who was ten years her junior.
She loved to travel and had lots of interests - including crafts, local history and the creation of poetry. In retirement, nothing pleased her more than to go out to lunch with friends and have a good old chinwag.
These are the main things that I remember about her but I am sure that other bloggers and blog visitors will recall many other things about Pat and the wholesome life she lived.
Currently her blog, "The Weaver of Grass" is no longer live on the internet which is a shame because I for one would have liked to look back through her treasury of posts. They could have been an enduring online monument to her inquisitiveness, her kindness, her commonsense and her affection for other people with all their differences.
Back in August 2017 I called in on Pat at South Dyke Farm near the village of Bellerby in North Yorkshire. Sadly her "farmer" had passed away in February of that year and she was preparing to move into a bungalow in the nearby market town of Leyburn. Unfortunately, she happened to be out for the day when I called but I peered inside her house where I could see cardboard boxes packed and ready to go. I left a can of salmon on her doorstep with a note. She always said she loved salmon.
Below - the semi-detached farmhouse and the drive up to the farm near Bellerby. It had been mothballed when I visited.
Pat embraced blogging with a passion and to me she was a great example of how senior citizens can use the internet to stay connected with the world. You might be alone in a bungalow or an isolated farmhouse but you can still "speak" to the world at large and follow the blogposts of others - even making new friends. In this sense she was probably a trailblazer.
She lived a good life, a happy life, making the most of her time here. She will be remembered with genuine affection by very many bloggers. Farewell to the one and only Pat Thistlethwaite.
Pat at the age of eight
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/9uVjQd8