Larraine Kathleen Greasley

Larraine was born in Birmingham, England, the middle of 3 sisters, to Charles and Jean Martin. Charlie always felt he was outnumbered. Always the keen sportswoman of the girls, she was a long time netball team member, and accomplished competitive swimmer, representing her school at both county and national levels. She was also named head girl of her school. A true child of the 60s (and avid Beatles fan), Larraine was constantly chided by Charlie and Jean for the shortness of her skirts. Charlie again felt outnumbered among the screaming masses when taking the girls to see the Fab Four at the Hippodrome in Birmingham. In her late teens, after Larraine left school and worked at a local college for a time, the family moved from Birmingham to Balsall Common, the village where her future husband Keith grew up. A couple of years later, Larraine worked at a local steakhouse pub, running the admin and office, but filled in the occasional shift behind the bar on some evenings. This is where Larraine and Keith would meet, perhaps in hilariously British fashion. They met again in a discotheque in Coventry, where Keith arranged for her friends to leave without her, so he could be fill the role of the chivalrous knight in shining armour, and offer to escort her home. And there the next 40 years would begin. They married two years later, in 1976, and their son Jonathan arrived three years after that, at which time Larraine stopped working to be a dedicated full time wife and mother, highlighting the importance of family throughout her life. The family lived in Germany for two years, moving when Jonathan was only six weeks old. Later, they would live for many years in Leamington Spa, in the heart of Shakespeare country, and when Jonathan began secondary school Larraine returned to work in the medical records office of Warwick NHS Hospital. In their late 40s, Larraine and Keith moved north to West Yorkshire, following Keith's career transition from thirty years in the automotive industry into the world of mail order shopping. In the meantime, Jonathan had settled in the USA, so in 2011, following Keith's early retirement, they moved once again to Southern California to be near their son. Unfortunately, within nine months of moving, Larraine was diagnosed with cancer, and would spend the next three years bravely fighting the disease until it proved too much to bear, at the relatively young age of sixty three. She is lovingly remembered by Keith, Jonathan & Jessie, her mother Jean, her sister Beverly & brother in law Alan, and her nieces Rebecca and Eleanor, among many and no less significant others.