2018 Sue

Here are some pictures of Sue. Most of them cover the time at Cambridge and the years up to the early 80s where we went every year on a group holiday to climb the mountains of Scotland, the Lake District or North Wales. Sometimes we went on more than one a year. 

By this time we all had jobs of one sort or another, but the times that were really special, for me at any rate, were the times in the hills. Climbing along the magnificently jagged ridge of An Teallach, in the golden red light, seeing our shadows stretched out on the clouds, was something we’ll never forget. 

The people who came changed around a bit, but the constants for most years were Sue, Karl and Pete (Mike’s brother). It is almost unbearably sad to see some of the pictures on this page with the three of them together, and to realise that they have all gone.  But they will not be forgotten.

After the news of Sue’s death, while we were up in Scotland, and felt helpless that we couldn’t do anything, Mike wrote a poem about Sue. It started with the phrase “Special to the power special”, and then followed this mathematical theme. Sue’s parents were both mathematicians. The “no limit” refers to Bob Dylan’s song “Love Minus Zero / No Limit” which was a favourite of Sue’s. Not very good but the best I could do.

Sue, Mike and Karl on Suilven in 1980