As Jessica has made clear, Muriel was into recycling long before most of us and there was nothing haphazard about her Christmas card collages from her previous year’s intake. She would try to make her rearrangements personal for each recipient. She was into ecology very early on, too: “I hope you do not let the water run while you clean your teeth” was one verbal rap across the knuckles I have never forgotten. She was no mean watercolourist either and she would often delight her friends with little paintings of flowers like this one:
And like many SRNs, when she retired from being A Nurse, Muriel did not stop nursing, At different times, two elderly ladies both attached to St. Mary Magdalen’s who lived on their own were struck down by nasty flu bugs which put them in bed for a few days. One lived just a few minutes’ walk from Muriel’s flat. This lady was a little averse to eating even when fully fit, so every day Muriel paid a call armed with her home-made chicken soup and she refused to leave until every spoonful had gone down.
The other lady lived on the other side of Oxford. She too was no great eater. An apple a day keeps the Doctor alert if it is all you are eating. To reach her, Muriel needed a bus into town and then a bus out of it and the same on her return, but every day she paid a call armed with her home-made lentil soup because this friend was a Vegan. Here, too, Muriel stayed for a light-hearted pep-talky chat until the dose was administered.
Both ladies felt afterwards that she may have saved their lives.