Maria Simons
11th October 1925 – 21st December 2024
Maria was born in Louvain, Belgium but spent all her married life in Kibworth; which amounted to 79 years. She married our late father Eric Simons in October 1945. Eric was in the RAF and frequently visited the café in Louvain owned by Maria’s father. Despite not speaking each other’s language at first, love blossomed. So, they decided to get married.
It wasn’t easy making all the arrangements. A rather large problem was how to get Maria over to England as there were not yet any civilian planes or boats crossing the Channel after the end of the war. They took the problem to the British Embassy in Brussels where the man they spoke to was very helpful. He looked at Eric’s address and said, “I know that place, I used to live in Kibworth once”. He promised to get Maria a British passport as soon as they were married and some papers to say she was on the temporary staff of the embassy andneeded to fly to London on duty. The RAF Padre asked Maria if she would like to borrow a wedding dress from Gainsboro Film Studios that was worn by the actress Margaret Lockwood in the film ‘Quiet Wedding’, an offer she couldn’t refuse!
So, after their wedding, Maria left her family and country for her new life in Kibworth at the age of 20. Eric still had a few months to serve in the RAF, so Maria was left living with a family she had only just met. How brave is that! She settled in Kibworth very well, helped by Eric’s family and was soon looking after her daughters Leona and Jean, then four years later son Alan was born.
Maria was very good at dressmaking, gardening and decorating. She made several family members’ wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses, as well as an embroidered tablecloth for the Women’s
Institute with their emblem on and, in the Methodist Church, she created wall banners in applique and embroidery.
When Eric died in 2013 at the age of 90, Maria was left at the head of the family with 3 children, 6 grandchildren, and as the years passed, 4 great grandchildren. Then last June her eldest great-granddaughter had a daughter, making her a great-great-grandma! She will be sadly missed by us all, but we feel fortunate to have had her in our lives for such a long time.
Leona, Jean and Alan
Former Trustees of KCH Return
