Page 76 - BR September 2023 (1)

September 2023 September 2023
BERE REGIS CRICKET CLUB
RESULTS OBITUARIES/EULOGIES

Tuesday was baking day: the boys would come home from school
to a house full of gorgeous smells - cakes and scones andsausage
rolls which were still warm, with buttery flaky pastry that just melted in their
mouths, mmm! I'm sure many of you will have enjoyed treats like these: Diana
baked not just for family but for church fetes and village 'do's' too.
In the early 1960s Diana met Brian Phillips, a handsome young chap who was
a friend of her cousin and lived in Bere Regis. They courted for a couple of
years before tying the knot in 1964. Theirs was a solid, devoted marriage of
over 50 years before he died in 2015.
When they got married, Diana moved east to be with him, and they lived at
13, Shitterton. This was where, for a few years, they raised their young family as
first John and then Colin arrived. Then, in a move which cemented her love
and affinity for the area, they had a house built for them there - Culver Dell,
named after the poem by William Barnes. Its first lines are 'There's no place I
do like so well / as Elm Krapp in Culver Dell'. It was a fitting name: Diana loved
living there. She felt settled; it was the perfect place for her to bring up her
boys and enjoy with Brian, and she was delighted to get involved with the
local community.
And how! She was on the boys' school fund-raising committee; she was a
school governor and on the PTA; and she served on both the parochial
Church Council and the Parish Council. She was also a Sunday School
teacher, and during the long summer holidays she organised games and
activities for all the village children" Later on she was involved with the local
Age Concem: leading meetings, running quizzes, organising speakers,
overseeing the annual fete and parties and even the Christmas pantomime.
In fact one year Diana lent her creative writing skills to the project and wrote
the pantomime, directing and starring in it too!

After her sons had left home and begun living their own lives, Diana returned
to work and ended up helping elderly people as a Home Care Assistant:
supporting others was a fundamental stripe of her character.
Village and rural life was the dynamo that made
Diana's life tick. She made many (lifelong) friends this
way - people like the ladies who'd originally formed
the Young Wives Club. They continued to meet and
enjoy each other's company for so many years that
they quietly had to drop the word 'young' as no-one
could credibly fall into that demographic! Later still,
after she and Brian had retired and down-sized to
their place in Dorchester, Diana joined the

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