Months after his beloved wife Angela died, a grieving husband Robert Owen discovered a secret she had left behind.
Unbeknown to him and her family she had begun writing a compelling autobiography detailing her early life in South Shields and later in Huddersfield.
Robert, an 80-year-old grandfather, of Fenay Crescent, Almondbury, said: “I was thrilled though not a little surprised to say the least.
“Although we shared everything together as a couple this was something she had kept secret from me and her family.
“I only discovered it when I happened to look under her favourite chair and found it under a cushion.”
A published author himself with seven credits to his name including his own autobiography, wittily entitled Two Rooms and A View, he decided to enlist the help of friends to complete Angela’s book.
Robert said: “I was surprised and impressed, and obviously given the circumstances, felt as though I should finish it off.
“Although she had written plenty of reports in her time, as she was a teacher at Almondbury High School for 17 years from 1974 to 1991, she had not written anything before.
“And, of course, it gave me something to do. Six or seven of Angela’s friends have contributed to ‘A Lovely Lady who made us laugh’. The hardest bit was deciding which bits to leave out.
“Angela wrote chapters two, three and five and took us up to when she was 20 years of age.
“During the past year and leaving her work unmodified I filled in the later years and asked family and friends to contribute short chapters on her varied life growing up in South Shields and Hudderfield.
“She was a lovely and jovial person and very well-known around Huddersfield given her time as a teacher and a member of Huddersfield Thespians and Almondbury Players.”
Angela also performed an important favour for Harold Wilson, the Huddersfield-born leader of the Labour Party who was visiting the town on February 8, 1974, and staying at The George Hotel.
Prime Minister Ted Heath announced there would be a General Election that afternoon and in desperate need of a typist his staff contacted the Huddersfield College of Education (Technical) and Angela, awaiting her husband, found herself the only secretarial student on the premises.
In Wilson’s private suite at The George, and helped by his press officer Joe Haines, she worked on his speech for the next day.
Poignantly, publication of Angela’s autobiography comes not long before the anniversary of her death aged 75 on June 30.
Anyone who would like to buy a copy of the book can ring Robert on 01484 533041 or by visiting Kirkwood Hospice, where she died, in Northgate, Almondbury.
Robert has asked for contributions of between £5 and £10.
