Penelope "Penny" Rivett.

31 March 1945 - 19 August 2021

Penny was born to Irish parents in Shepherds Bush and grew up and went to school in West London. The daughter of a school teacher, a happy childhood was spent enjoying camping weekends in the UK, and long six week holidays in Europe. This gave her a lifelong love of travel, the natural world and the great outdoors.

The family moved from Shepherds Bush to East Acton in the late 1950's and after finishing school Penny started her working life as an office administrator fur an insurance company in Hammersmith. Various office jobs followed until the travel bug led to her working as a nanny for a Sicilian

family in Toarrina for several years.

This proved to be be an eventful, but enjoyable appointment, which led to many travel adventures,including visits to Malta and North Africa.

In the early 1980's Penny took a job as a resident helper for the Across Trust at their accommodation facility, the Chateau L'Astazou, in Lourdes, France. The Across Trust is a Catholic charity providing specialised transport and accommodation for disabled and terminally ill people wanting to make a pilgrimage to the Grotto at Lourdes.

Penny loved the Pyrenees and that part of South West France, and she loved the work at L'Astazou. It was there that she met Peter, her partner, and the love of her life, who was one of the Across ambulance drivers. This was probably one of the happiest times of her llfe, she loved the peopie and the work at l'Astazou. Years later she would recall stories of that time in her life and the wonderful trips Peter and herself made in and araund Gironde and Bayonne.

In the mid 1980's and after returning to the UK Penny worked as a Housing administration officer for Notting HilI Housing Association. It was in 1989 that she suffered the tragic sudden loss of Peter in a traffic accident, an event that took Penny a long time to recover from. But she did recover and rebuild her fife developing a love of walking and rambling, enjoying many biking and walking holidays both in the UK and abroad.

Penny had a sjmple but strong faith and belief in God and regularly attended Mass, both here at St. Aidans, and also St. Benedict's in Ealing.

She believed that little acts of kindness were the building blocks to a happier world and she had been inspired by the story of St.Therese of Lisieux and was a long time supporter of the "Little Way" association which supports the poor, disadvantaged, sick and hungry, in developing countries.

Penny also had an interest in animal rights and anti cruelty and was a committed supporter of the World Wildlife Fund and the RSPCA.

In the late 1990's she moved to Harwell, where she enjoyed

her new house and garden, developing an interest in planting and horticulture, and after taking retirement in 2006 she continued to enjoy her walking holidays and trips abroad.

A real delight for Penny in these later times was the birth of her niece Jennifer in 2005, and together with the rest of the family and the two dogs she enjoyed many days cut and longer holidays in the UK, especially Norfolk, over the years as Jenny was growing up.

Penny will be remembered by those who loved her for her dry but insightful sense of humour, her kindness and thoughtfulness, her courage and resolve always to try to do the "right thing"........but above all for her empathy, compassion and concern for her fellow humans, animals and the Earth we all inhabit.

A short poem which Penny recently discovered, and liked very much, seems to sum up her approach to life.

Life is mostly froth and bubble,

Two things stand tike stone,

Kindness in another's trouble,

Courage in your own.