It’s taken a few weeks for me to work up to this one.  How to describe what I’ll miss most about my dear Aunty Penny, as there’s so much.

As a youngster, I found Penny a little scary as she loved to tease me.  I often got a telling off for being too loud and raucous.  She’d grab me, call me a nasty name and then leave her trademark Penny-stamp of smeared lipstick on my cheek, which was mortifying for a youngster.

As I grew, I became less wary.  I noticed Penny was forthright, often outrageous and very funny, unlike the rest of the grownups.  Her teasing of my dad was relentless but she often had him in tears of laughter.  I began to look forward to the times when the whole family was together and Penny could be counted on to make us laugh.

Even as I approached my forties, Penny would still grab me, call me ’a little sh**’ and plant her mark on my cheek, but now I wore the lipstick-smear with pride rather than embarrassment.

Fearsome and fearless, she set an example to speak ones’ mind, not to care two hoots what others thought and most importantly to laugh, preferably with a glass of red in hand.