Mary Eileen Paddison (ne Aspland) was born 28th March 1935 youngest child of Henry and Olive Aspland of Bethlem Farm, Old Leake. Sister to Ada, Florrie, Joan, Ernest, Ivy and Alice. As her Dad was a farm foreman they moved around to different farms of Mr Bowser moving at a young age to Wrangle, Candlesby and then to Cawkwell.

She went to school at Alford and Donington on Bain (which was a senior school in those days)

She met Chris whilst her father was forman for Bowers at Cawkwell, Chris would be cleaning down his tractor whilst Mary went passed him to collect the eggs on the farm. After leaving school Mary worked in the Silk shop in Louth (now Holland and Barrett) where she met her lifelong friend Chrisabel. The family then moved back to Wrangle where Mary went to be a housekeeper for a doctor in Boston, unfortunately this job only lasted one day!! She then went to be a housekeeper for a local farmer until she married Chris.

Mary and Chris married at Wrangle Church on 26th March 1955, she was driven to church by Mr Pitcher in his Bentley which helped make her day, they made their home at the Barrack Cottages, Cawkwell.

They have two sons, Neale born on 24th December 1955, & Dene followed on 26th June 1959. In April 1960 they moved to Walk Farm, Benniworth, this is where Mary started to learn to drive but never took her test. In April 1965 they moved again to Boswell Farm, as the boys were at school Mary worked on the farm part time until she retired.

They enjoyed many holidays abroad in the 70s, 80s & 90s. Mary then became chief organizer of many bus holidays in the UK. They took up sequence dancing in the 70s which was sometimes 5 nights a week! Mary also took up knitting with a machine, and spend many hours with friends and family knitting anything from a pair of gloves to a full knitted suit.

In 1997 they moved to Lacey Gardens, where they remained until November 2020. Mary loved the garden full of flowers and spent many hours nurturing and planting out 1000s of plug plants.

In their retirement they continued to enjoy sequence dancing many nights a week and Marys Banofee Pie was the Piste of Resistance at many dance social evening. They continued to enjoy numerous bus holidays with their many many friends, and not one special birthday or anniversary slipped by without one of Mary’s home-made cakes.

They celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary in March 1995, and were the proud receivers of a telegram from HM Queen Elizabeth when they celebrated their Diamond Wedding Anniversary in March 2015.

Mary lived a full and active life until March 2019 when she suffered a serious stroke, which took the use of her left side, thankfully not her voice so she was still able to communicate and her strong character and whit continued throughout her illness.

Sadly Mary passed away in the County Hospital Louth on Monday 1st February 2021.

Mary will be missed by all her family and friends.