Tributes to former carer who died just months after her best friend

The family of High Wycombe’s Rita Crydwen Priest have recalled happy memories of her life following her tragic death this month after a battle with bowel cancer.

Her best friend, sister-in-law and “partner in crime” Beryl died in March this year – and Rita’s loved ones say the pair are now back together again “in heaven comparing notes and laughing”.

Rita was born in The Shrubbery in High Wycombe on Christmas Eve, 1934, and was nearly five years old when the Second World War broke out.

By then, she had a younger brother Glyn King and the pair quickly became inseparable. Rita’s family recalled how she would scoop up her brother when the air raid sirens went off and hide in the coal hole while her mother was out.

At the age of 12, Rita was expected to leave school and head out to work, with her wages going towards the household bills and the care of her half-sister, who was two at the time.

Rita got married to a High Wycombe lad named Tony Stroud, and they celebrated a double wedding with her brother and his wife at a church in the town.

Rita and Tony went on to have two children – a boy and a girl – and she went off to work in Nixie’s Stores in Micklefield, where she met and became good friends with Beryl Priest – a friendship that would last the rest of their lives and see them get up to all kinds of mischief.

Recalling their friendship, Rita’s loved ones told the Bucks Free Press: “Wherever the two of them went there was laughter and mayhem and they just knew how to have a good time and they egged each other on.

“The most resounding memory most people have of the two them is laughter and there were many, many times they were lucky to get away with what they did.

“Once at a niece’s wedding, they were huddled together in a corner and the bride went to see what they were up to - they were filling their handbags with the tealight holders. The bride allowed them to take two each but the rest had to be placed back on the table.

“She said she felt like their mother and they looked like two naughty schoolchildren.”

The friends would also buy clothes in Marks and Spencer, take them home and try them on together - before taking them back again the next day.

Eventually, Beryl introduced Rita to her brother Ron, who lived in Chadwick Street in High Wycombe and the pair immediately hit it off.

Described as the “love of her life”, meeting Ron prompted Rita to divorce Tony and move back in with her mother and her two children in Spearing Road.

In the freezing winter of 1961/62, Rita, Ron and the children moved to Brackley Road, where they lived until 1965 when the couple got married at Wycombe Registry Office.

It was a low-key affair, with the pair meeting their two witnesses for the ceremony – and they were back at work an hour later.

At this time, Rita was working in Hillside Stores and expecting her third child – a daughter – but unhappy with her job as a shop assistant, she made to move into caring.

She took on a job as a carer at Cherry Garth Care Home in Holmer Green, which led her to study, and a successful career.

She went onto become matron and officer in charge at Rushymead Care Home in Coleshill, a sprawling estate with huge rooms.

Rita was renowned for her ability to organise events and dancing and singing entertainment, including amazing Christmas parties with elaborate decorations.

In a bid to raise cash for the home, she organised fetes, with one attended by television and film star Barbara Windsor. The pair got on well, swapping stories of their lives.

Taking early retirement from Rushymead when she was 50, Rita went on to work at the Chiltern Hospital in Great Missenden and then the Pusey Hospice.

Recalling her cheeky nature, Rita’s family told the Bucks Free Press: “On a night out at the Studley Arms in Stokenchurch, Rita had consumed a little too much alcohol, in those days this pub was a very posh place and Rita decided, upon leaving, she wanted the lady off the front of one of the Rolls Royce cars parked there.

“She just waltzed up, twisted the lady on the bonnet and all hell broke loose - the alarms on the car went off people came out of the pub to see Ron bundling her into the car and spending the next 20 minutes apologising.

“Luckily everyone saw the funny side and that no harm had been done and Ron got her home without an arrest.”

In her later years, Rita loved going on holiday, frequenting places like Cyprus, Malta and Spain, and her passions were her hair, nails and shoes.

Sadly, Rita had a fall in 2018 and broke five ribs, leading her to move away from their beloved Brackley Road house where they had lived for 57 years, to West Oxfordshire so she could be cared for by her daughter and son-in-law.

Her health suffered, and she had two operations in the space of a year, as well as being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and Vascular Dementia, along with kidney disease.

Their beloved Brackley Road home was sold to pay for her care, and a fully-equipped two-bed house was built especially for her to live in comfortably close to her daughter.

For the first time in her life, Rita had her own bedroom and a bed to herself – and was thrilled with it. So much so, that in the last week of her life, when the palliative care team wanted Rita in a hospital bed, her family said no – allowing her to enjoy the bedroom where she felt safe.

Her family said: “She died in this room of bowel cancer, with the sun streaming through the open doors, a slight breeze blowing and the birds singing, with her husband and daughter and son-in law by her bedside.

“Rita lost her eldest daughter Jenny Stroud to lupus in January of 2019. Jen was 61 and had been educated at Holmer Green school back in the 70s. Rita was devastated.

“Rita also lost her sister-in-law, partner in crime and best friend Beryl in March of this year. They are now together in heaven comparing notes and laughing at the outfits.”