Margaret loved life to the full, she was a kind and generous woman, at times a bit fiery, but was very loyal, very honest and unselfish with a wicked sense of humour.
She was born on the 1st May 1948 to her parents Charlie and Gwen Ranson in North Weald Essex and went to Epping High School. The family moved to Hatfield when she was 11 and she attended St Audrey’s Secondary Modern where she obtained “O” levels in Biology and English.
She had two brothers, Mike and Gareth and a sister Christine. Her other sister Lynne sadly passed away last year.
Margaret was married in the swinging sixties and had two lovely children, Tanya and Paul, unfortunately the marriage did not last and she was left to bring up them up on her own, as you can imagine this was not easy but she had the loving support of her mum and dad and her brothers and sisters.
She has seven Grandchildren, Daniel, Sarah, Terri, Lauren, Ryan, Dean and Billy and one Great Grandson, Tadhg, watching them growing up gave her great joy and happiness.
Margaret met her best friend Sharon when they both worked at Sanctuary Housing Association and they stayed friends for over 30 years, meeting every month.
In 1975 she met the love her life, Mick at a New Year’s eve party at the Hawker Siddeley social club, Hatfield, although she played hard to get they eventually got together when Mike needed a partner for a works social event.
After a short courtship (31 years) they eventually got married in 2007 at their favourite romantic location, Sorrento, Italy, on April 23rd, which was a great day for everybody who attended.
To help support her children she started work as Doctor’s receptionist, she recognised she had potential and wanted something more rewarding, her career took off when she showed her determination to become a Personal Assistant, by further education and becoming proficient at shorthand, this led to successful roles as the PA to the Managing Directors at Leibher and Sanctuary Housing association, eventually becoming the HR manager, she moved into IT and took the lead role as the National IT systems trainer at Sanctuary Housing.
She loved cooking for the family and had a speciality for baking all types of pies, especially shepherd’s pie. She loved her garden her favourite flowers were Fuchsias and Orchids. She also liked reading and doing puzzles.
She loved her pets: German shepherd dogs, a cat and a rabbit, but her real love was riding her horse Bella.
Outside of her busy family life another side of her shone through where she passionately cared about the social community, especially the welfare of the elderly and vulnerable. In 1976 Margaret contacted social services and asked if there was a person who was living alone at Christmas who she could have round to Christmas dinner. This is when she met Lily a lady who was in her seventies and was partially blind. After having Lily round for Christmas dinner Margaret would regularly take Lily for a lunch time drink in the Robin Hood pub in Hatfield town centre, which is now long gone, they became great friends.
Margaret spent a lot of time volunteering at Jimmy Macs and Tilbey house day care centres when she retired. Every year both Margaret and Mike would give up their free time on Christmas Day providing support and help to a charity called The Mixed Group who provide Christmas dinner for the lonely and elderly. A truly remarkable lady, showing humility and caring for the local community. She also volunteered for the Free books charity at the Galleria, Hatfield.
She loved to travel and eating out and was determined to meet life full on when diagnosed with her illness, for the last 20 months she was determined to visit as many favourite locations around Europe as possible, and with the support of Mike she achieved all of these ambitions.
A lovely lady who will be missed by all her family and friends.