Ada Porch - 5th Dec 1910 to 22nd Apr 2010

Our grandma passed away in Lands House Nursing Home after succumbing to a chest infection, eight months shy of her 100th birthday.

She was 2 years old when the Titanic sank and she lived through both World Wars. Born Ada Pullan in Burley-in-Wharfedale to George and Beatrice Pullan she had a younger sister soon after who sadly passed away at a very young age.

A second sister, Mabel, came along in 1913 and as the two grew up they helped their dad by working in his small grocery shop.

She married Gordon Porch in 1935 and on 15th of May 1937 she gave birth to a baby girl, Pauline.

Unfortunately Gordon and Ada did not have long together before World War Two came along and Gordon joined the Army. He did not survive the war and was killed in North Africa when a German artillery shell struck the lorry he was driving.

Ada never remarried and brought up Pauline as a single parent as many widows had to do after the war.

Mabel married Les and they also had a daughter, Angela.

Pauline grew up and met the man she wold spend the rest of her life with, George Cameron, a sailor in the Royal Navy. They married and had a son, Gordon and after a number of years moved to Halifax. They invited Ada to move in with them in 1965 as there was plenty of room.
This room was quickly taken up by the arrival of another three sons, Fraser Heath and Callum within the next six years.

Mabel's daughter Angela married Bob Lee and they had two daughters Cherie and Collette.

Ada and Mabel were very close and went on foreign holidays together. This was back when most people went to the British coast for their holidays but Mabel loved travel and Ada was happy to go with her.

Tragically in November 1994 Pauline fell ill and deteriorated alarmingly with a brain illness that doctors were unable to treat.

Pauline lapsed into a coma and passed away in March 1995.

Mabel too passed away in 2005 after suffering a stroke.

My grandma lived with us all the years that my brothers and myself were growing up, she was like a third parent only one that didn't give you a rollicking.

If I ever did anything to annoy her she would say that I was "warna me arse" which as far as I can tell is old Yorkshire for "you are as much use as my arse".

She smoked Peter Stuyvesants and liked to put whisky in her tea. If she wanted to go to the toilet she would call it "spending a penny".

She would buy me a Pink Panther bar every Saturday and would have her lunch at the Merrie England cafe in Halifax just about every weekday.

She opened up a building society account for each of us and put money into it religously for years.

The thing she used to say most of all was that she was a nuisance and we would be glad when she was gone. While her presence must have occasionally put a strain on my parents marriage, she was never a nuisance to me or my brothers and the fact that she lived with us made for a stronger bond between us all.

I don't want to appear as though I am looking at the past with rose tinted glasses and making out that we were like The Waltons.

We were just as fractious and squabbly as any other family and some of the rows my grandma and my mum had were blazing.

But now that she has gone I see how much she contributed to our upbringing and the effect that she had on all our lives and I'm grateful she was there for us.

I think I can speak for my dad, my brothers, Angela, Cherie and Collete when I say that we love you.

Night night Grandma.