Amazing Grace

GRACE CLOTHIER 1929- 2024

I first met the lovely lady who was to be my future Sister-in-Law when I was six years old at her family’s home in Lovington. I was lucky enough to have been taken by Jim to Sunday Lunch with his future in-laws, this was an amazing treat I can assure you as Mrs. Day’s cooking was legendary, Grace and both of her sisters were already wonderful cooks as well. Quite why Jim decided to tote me along I’ll never know, as I could not have been much of an asset to his courtship of Grace, who was one of Mr and Mrs Day’s lovely daughters.

However get to go I did and Grace’s Dad, Mum and I got on famously despite me telling them that our Fersigin tractors were much better than their Fordson Standards! As you will have noticed I couldn’t even say Ferguson correctly, only three weeks before Grace passed she had remembered that I had mispronounced the name of the tractors on my first visit to her house, which was sadly the last time I spoke to her.

However despite the fact that Jim had taken his cheeky little brother to her house sometimes, theirs was a relationship that was made in heaven from the moment they met at Young Farmers Club at the age of seventeen. From that moment they were inseparable and enjoyed so much together all through their lives such as Music, Dancing, Tennis, Golf and so many other things.

Grace was already quite a good tennis player when they met, and of course Jim had never found the time to play, however this did not stop him from enjoying the game of tennis with Grace after he decided to take it up.

I don’t think Jim ever did manage to beat Grace at tennis and later on in their lives they both took up playing golf, again Grace became quite an accomplished golfer sometime before Jim did, so yet again he still had to compete quite hard to reach Grace’s standard.

Shortly after they met Jim became the ‘Three Counties Hand Milking Champion’ and she followed him around the Young Farmers circuit and cheered him on all the way. After that he and Grace took up Ballroom dancing which they did together both before their children came along and many years after they started the family.

Together they achieved a very high standard and I was mesmerised by their Quickstep with Jim wearing his tailed suit which swirled in the turns and Grace looking wonderful in her glamorous Ball gown. They were my heroes as although I loved music I could never achieve any success with dance step tuition, probably due to my attention deficit problem.

When they married they quickly became the third and forth legs of the T.W. Clothier and Son business table, my Dad and Mum being the first two legs of course.Together they were such powerhouses for the farm partnership as Grace settled in to the family home and they quickly became wonderful parents to Janet, Ann, Sandra, and a little later Roger and David.

So few of us will ever know how much the current Wyke Farms business owes to the Grace and Jim partnership as they worked so hard to build the foundations and without sound foundations all buildings crumble and fall.Grace was a wonderful wife for Jim as he worked so hard on the farm, she was good at everything from parenting and cooking to feeding the farm hands who sometimes lived in the Farmhouse with them, she was even a good gardener which was wonderful for Jim as he, like most farmers I know didn’t have the interest in, or found the time for gardening!

No one’s life is ever all “Beer and Skittles” as we say around here, and sure enough Grace and Jim’s life was no different and yet Grace coped so well when first of all my Dad’s illness came along, and then there were many challenges that followed for Jim and Grace as they worked so hard to build the family and business.

She was always able to take the knocks that their new life threw at them in such a cool, calm and collected way, and through it all Grace was a powerhouse of mental strength and support which helped so much to carry us all through.

Indeed all through her later life she carried that never say die spirit and what seemed to us like boundless energy and enthusiasm. All of those she loved and met her were enthused by her love of life and energy.Bless her, she will be sadly missed by all of us who loved her dearly.

John