Dear Friends, 

Siân and I were never into Christmas letters, but I thought this year I should make an exception. I am so grateful to so many people for the moving letters, your help and support after Siân died, and throughout the various lockdowns of the pandemic. 
I am, of course, so very lucky to have Isabel, Jamie, Clement and Romola nearby and in a bubble with me. Goodness knows how I would have managed without them. The grandchildren always bring you down to earth and remind you what life is about.

Oddly in some ways, I missed Siân even more when the restrictions were lifted and we could meet with friends again. She so loved seeing you all, talking to you, listening to what was happening in your lives, sharing issues of importance with you. Darling Siân always had a view in response. 

One of our friends said, “Tyrrell, we did think when you got engaged that you might have taken on more than you could manage!” I was so fortunate to have her with me for 47 years. I have lost the person who showed me how to love and who had such a wide knowledge of so many things that I lack. Siân loved cultural pursuits and made us regular visitors to many of the museums, galleries and theatres that we have here in London. She had many other pleasures, reading (she loved her book group), learning French (she loved her French class), gardening, walking and bird watching. Her father taught her to look at things carefully, particularly when watching for the movement of birds and animals. She was a great walking companion, spotting and naming animals, birds and flowers. This she taught me and the grandchildren. We live close to Isabel and her family. Without doubt, Siân’s greatest pleasure was to spend time in their company, watching them grow up.

For me, our allotments have been an area of work and activity, a source of peace and tranquillity. It felt really odd under lockdown to be up there looking out over London where everyone was locked in. We both loved it up there, such a special space and the grandchildren love it too.

Soon after her death I caught Covid 19 mildly, which meant we were all in isolation for her funeral. Isabel wrote a piece for the Evening Standard about Siân’s funeral and they published a shortened version of it. I have included it on the link I mention below.

Many of you will know our birthdays are close together, so I had my 70th with Isabel, Jamie, Clement and Romola during the first day of the new tier lockdowns. We spent the day at Kew Gardens which was glorious, and then we had a delicious Italian meal in Locanda Locatelli in the West End.

We are very grateful for the enormous amount of care and support Siân and we received as a family from our wonderful St Christopher’s Hospice. They have struggled to fundraise in these difficult times. We would certainly have had a collection for them at any Memorial service. So, after talking with them, we have set up a St Christopher’s Snowdrop Fund in memory of Siân; I invite you to use it to post messages, thoughts, pictures and memories, and also to donate in her memory if you so wish: https://sianevans.muchloved.com/

As a family we have already helped with fundraising for the Remembering with St Christopher’s event which finished last Sunday. So some of you may have seen the letters and photographs we shared. But if not, I will upload some of them to the Snowdrop Fund website.

When Isabel and I were thinking about this fund, she suggested we should collect for an aspect of the hospice work that her mother would have particularly valued and thought that we should focus on Siân’s nursing background. So we would like to use any funds this site receives to support nursing education and training in End of Life Care locally and nationally through the new CARE Centre at the hospice. Here is a link to to more information about the centre that is due to open imminently:
https://www.stchristophers.org.uk/care

Thank you all again, take care, keep safe; I look forward to the time when we can see each other face to face.

tyrrellevans@icloud.com
07866532930