From Kahra:I don't know how many of you would have had the privilege of knowing us when we were younger, but we were a lively bunch, some may even say a handful, but never too much for granny. I'm going to be as bold as to speak on her behalf and say that her grandchildren were always right up there on the top of the list of things that made her happy. Not many people when we were children could say that their grandmother was a gym regular, had and was able to use and understand their own computer, completed a car mechanics course and understood the mechanics of her car and generally had the gusto for life and the independence that Granny had before she got ill. When you are a kid London to Leicester is an extremely long journey, so what an adventure it would be for us to come up and visit Granny in the holidays and basically be spoilt rotten. We wouldn't just come and sit up in the house, Granny would cook for us sing to us, play with us, tell us stories and take us out on day trips, and then sometimes she would go to work in the evening. she would even take us on holiday with her which i must admit cant have been easy. But she loved spending time with her grandchildren and we loved spending time with our Granny. I remember being so proud to tell my friends about what Granny had done, was doing and what granny would be doing next. In the last few weeks much of the days have been spent reminiscing about all the good times we had,of which there are many. I could literally stand here all day but one memory that I will always have is one from when i was just 12 years old, which for me is half a lifetime ago. My school had a tradition of once a year for year 7s to bring their grandmother to school ( this was called take your Grandmother to school day) I remember going home and speaking to my mum about it and questioning whether or not i should even mention it to granny as it was such a long way to travel from leicester to london simply to come and look around my school and have afternoon tea. Straight away mummy said, don't be silly of course she would love to come. So i rang granny and invited her and of course she straight away agreed to come. So the afternoon came when we were sent to the front gate to meet our grandparents. Granny was there waiting at the top of the steps for me to meet her, she gave me a huge hug and kiss, the same as usual and had the usual smile on her face. A close friend of mine's grandmother was unable to attend, granny was simply not going to have her wondering around without a granny so invited her to spend the afternoon with us. All 3 of us had a such a sweet afternoon looking showing her round the school and what we do and chatting. The next day my friend said to me, "Kahra, your Gran really is lovely isn't she." . That was Granny From Gem: Agatha Fernella Horsford, nee Stevens, was many things to many people; a mother to some, goddy to others, colleague, friend, elder… in 1984, she became a grandmother and that was it; that became her title … GRANNY! She took to the role like a duck to water and wholeheartedly threw herself in to loving each and everyone of her grandchildren dearly. We were always desperate to come up to Leicester and spend the weekend for many reasons. Staying with granny guaranteed you the following: Unlimited fried dumplings, a bus ride to and from children’s world, with a toy of your choice, as many kisses and cuddles as you could take, granny’s homemade black cake, cheese and pasta (with more cheese than pasta), Oliver Twist (Ours and Granny’s favourite film) – singalong of course and dancing to calypso (Mighty Sparrow) until we were tired – and granny could dance you know, she really knew how to wink up! When you stayed with granny, you always slept in her bed with her, even though she had 2 spare rooms, she was the most huggable, snuggable person of my life and being with granny meant true happiness, pure unadulterated fun and true love. I don’t know how she did it but she always gave 100%. She was in love with us and we were in love with our granny. Granny had 12 grandchildren and NEVER forgot a birthday… like clockwork, the post would come and the first card would be from granny, always with a generous sum of money, often with more gifts to follow! When Granny went to conferences, she would buy a stick of rock for each and every one of us! She never stopped thinking about us and she never stopped telling us that she loved us. I have hundreds of stories about granny, all of us do because she had a special, unique relationship with each one of her grandchildren. I could tell you that granny taught me the first song I knew ‘Yes Jesus loves me’, I could tell you that granny answered every inquisitive question that I ever asked her – can you imagine that? (I had A LOT of questions) I could tell you about the time that granny played Grand Theft Auto with Aaron, Ethan and Rebbie on the Playstation and how astonished she was by the bad language… but as usual Granny laughed and brushed it off with one of her catchphrases ‘Well I never, Lard ah Mercy’ … I could also tell you that sometimes we spent ages just trying to think up ways to get granny to use one of her Antiguan catchphrases and that was when her Antiguan accent was at it’s strongest and she’d really annunciate on how ‘disgusting’ something or someones behaviour was but Granny was smart and she sussed us out… so of course occasionally she’d say ‘cocomber’ because she knew it made us laugh When I think about granny it brings tears to my eyes and a smile to my cheeks because she was wonderful… just the best of the best and I am so so sad that she is became ill and that she is gone. In moments of despair, I wonder how we will cope and wonder, ‘what am I going to do’… how can we ever be okay again, but I’ve decided that Granny would never have left us without knowing that we would somehow be okay. Certainly not today, maybe not tomorrow but through love, support, encouragement and the reminders of her that are present in each of us will endure. She held on; she was so poorly, for so long and still she held on for us. So it’s our duty to support each other through this… and of course we will. I will finish by saying this… Our granny… was incredible. We will miss you for eternity and remember you for even longer than that. It was a pleasure to know you and an honour to me your granddaughter. Love you so so much x