A former nurse who cared for thousands of patients in a 40-year career before retiring at North Walsham hospital has died aged 79.
Marie Young, who lived on Happisburgh Road, rose to become a theatre nurse, ward sister, nursing officer and at one time specialised in training, at hospitals in Sheffield, Birmingham and Market Bosworth.
When she and civil engineer husband Mike moved to North Walsham Marie worked as a part-time staff nurse mainly on night shifts.
Outside of work she was a talented musician playing piano, semi-professionally, for a dance school in Market Bosworth in the evenings, having finished her shift at the hospital.
When she was younger she also played the cello, and in Norfolk she enjoyed singing with the North Norfolk Chorale.
Daughter Nicola said: “Wherever she worked, people remember her for being a real livewire, sitting at the piano and leading the carol singing.”
She was a forthright Yorkshirewoman who worked really hard – baking bread in the morning, cycling to work, then going straight to the dance school in the evenings.
Marie, who also has a son Simon, a railway signalling manager, suffered poor health in recent years and was bedbound.
She caught Covid twice over the winter during spells in hospitals and battled back but sadly died from pneumonia in Heron Lodge care home at Wroxham on August 7.
Her funeral was held at North Walsham parish church on August 18, attended by some former colleagues from the war memorial hospital.
Nicola added: “Even when she was in hospital and care homes herself, she was still training the nurses and the carers – giving them advice on how to turn her over in bed.”
She thanked the staff who turned out for the funeral, where donations of more than £100 were made to the Hospital Friends.
