My first memory of Pip was when I was three and she was born in a small cottage hospital in Bromley. I remember walking under what seemed like an enormous archway, turning the handle of my little musical box which played ‘happy birthday to you’. From then on we were pretty much inseparable. I remember that as we slept in the same room we would talk for so long after lights out, that mum finally moved me into the spare bedroom. We shared a love for animals and many guinea pigs and rabbits spent short but happy lives in our company. We kept chickens and sold the eggs, keeping a careful record of our income and outgoings. We brought back orphaned lambs from the farm and bottle fed them until they were so fat they would hardly fit in the car to go back there. We collected birds eggs, only one from each nest though and denuded the woods of bluebells and primroses, our generation has a lot to answer for! We were brought up in the Exclusive brethren, which meant we had no television or radio but we always found plenty to do, whether it was climbing trees and making dens in our garden, cycling or roller skating around the block or writing stories and reading books or going for walks in the country with some of our many cousins. Pip always said she felt overshadowed by her big sister when we were young but I expect that was just because I was three years older which gave me a distinct advantage. She very soon out shone me in every way. Whether it was playing the piano, which she continued to do all her life, I struggled and gave up at grade 4, or getting to the grammar school, I went to the Tech. Pip learnt to speak French like a native while I failed my O level French. She learnt to sail pretty well whereas I used to panic every time the boat rocked a bit. She was always very determined to succeed, mum remembers her determination to master her two wheeler bicycle. I think she would have been about five and by then of course our brother Alister would have been two, so our mum had her hands full. Pip went out one day on her own with her bike, on the pavement outside our house and to mum’s surprise, as she didn’t even know Pip had gone, those were the days, she came back able to ride it. I think it was this determination as well as knowing God’s care and love for her that helped her to do many things outside her comfort zone. As soon as we left the exclusive brethren, where I know Pip had made a very real commitment to Jesus, she was seeking God’s will for her life. While I settled down to have a family and was soon awash with terry towelling nappies, Pip, making use of her French, was off to join the Billy Graham organisation in Brussels for the Eurofest mission. Then a year or two later she went to work for Operation Mobilisation in Paris, where she was involved with starting a new church. She also visited Senegal on a mission trip and sailed on one of the OM ships to take Christian literature and the gospel to South America, where I remember her telling me about her visit to remote villagers high up in the Andes. Although she was very involved with OM, Pip was always prepared to come back to England to help out when she was needed, I never heard her complain. When I had my youngest daughter, Fiona, my father was very ill and my mother, who would normally have helped out, was making daily trips to Guys Hospital with him, for radiotherapy. Pip came home to help me as there was no paternity leave for Andrew, in those days. She came back again a few months later to be with mum when dad passed away. Pip was always great at hospitality. Even though the flats in Paris were very small, she would happily welcome us with our three children plus a foster child or two. Anne Marie, who was also at Telegraph church, remembers how Pip welcomed her at her flat when the one she was living in was just too noisy. Living in Paris was quite a challenge, I remember one of Pip’s apartments was next door to a pianist who used to practise most of the night. Pip lived in Paris for about 14 years and finally bought her own flat. Quite a few people have told me they remember going to stay with her there. When she moved to Wales to help with a language school for OM there, we continued to visit her often in the holidays and half term. She would somehow manage to fit us all in on floors and sofas, cooking great meals and taking us climbing in the mountains. We also found a warm welcome when she moved to Bournemouth to help start the International training network there. She and Bill have continued that wonderful hospitality, especially with the International students who come to learn English in Bournemouth and need a little tlc and a good Sunday lunch or a BBQ. Pip always wanted to be married and have a family of her own and I will be eternally grateful to Bill for his persistence, patience and gentle persuasion as she made the decision to leave her independence and share her life at last. She said to me a few weeks ago that apart from her relationship with God, her marriage and the lovely family which she inherited as a result, was the greatest blessing of her life. I could go on, after all it was with her encouragement that I was able to teach English to Andrew’s colleagues when we were living in China. Later, when we came home I did the five week TEFL course with Pip and Janet and I have been able to teach English to students from lots of different countries at our home. I remember being very impressed when I was on the course, and we prayed for some of the many students that Pip and Janet had taught who are now teaching English and taking the gospel message to many, often very dangerous parts of the world. I will finish with something that Gareth Bolton wrote to me and although the hole that is left in our lives will never completely heal we can comfort ourselves with the fact that ’for Philippa things could not be better and she has not so much ‘gone away’ as ‘gone before’.