In memoriam

There have been two deaths this month which have touched my relatively steady little world.
As a child growing up in Derby, we took regular family weekend jaunts out to the Peak District and one of my favourite places was Chatsworth House. We didn't visit inside the House but the park and gardens were as magical as Disneyland to me. The exotic flowers in the steamy glass houses and the massive staircase fountain were absolute favourites. So I was saddened to hear of the death of the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire who, as the unexpected chatelaine of Chatsworth from the 1950s, and one of the feisty and positively extraordinary Mitford sisters, practically single-handedly rescued the family and house from bankruptcy and ruin. She was the visionary and entrepreneur behind the  success of the house and vast estate as a family home, wonderful visitor attraction and much-loved local trader and employer. What an operator! 
The second death, much more tragic and untimely, is of young Alice Gross from my own little community, who was murdered close by here, along the canal in Hanwell. The neighbourhood has been under the cloud of her disappearance since the end of August with hopeful yellow ribbons tied on every possible tree and post. They have all been taken down now with only a vast collection of flowers and tributes being maintained at the Hanwell Clock just up the road. The police investigation  and inquest is on-going so closure is far away. My heart goes out to her family.