[Bren was Elisabeth’s very dear friend from the time of this memory throughout both their lives]

First Meeting with Elisabeth (Betty)


After a life-time of friendship, I look back across the years and remember the very first time we met.  It happened like this:


In 1966, a group of young women from our English set at University, newly graduated, all went off to London to start our working lives or to sign up for further study.  One of our number, Linda, went to King’s College to take a further degree.  After a few solitary weeks there, she reported back that she had at last met a really nice woman, who was Canadian and was also studying English.  Her name was Betty.


I didn’t take a lot of notice of this and, in fact, had forgotten all about it, when I went round to see Linda one day in her flat in Hampstead.  The flat was up on the attic floor of a family house and had two beds, one either side of the room, under the sloping roofs. As I opened the door, I saw, sitting on one of the beds, the most striking figure.  She was beautifully and immaculately dressed and had a perfect 1960s Mary Quant hair-do.  I thought she looked amazingly sophisticated and glamorous.  She turned to look at me and broke out into that wonderful smile we all remember, absolutely whole-hearted, open and holding nothing back.  It was Betty, as she was known then, Elisabeth now.


No-one at that time had ever broken into our college group, and Elisabeth was the only person who ever did.  But that first smile was the beginning for me of a friendship of more than 55 years.  


Thank you, Elisabeth, for all the years of support in times of trouble; trust; understanding; laughs and endless ‘real’ talk.  


I will miss you.


Bren Abercrombie.