Lisa Robotham

I first got to know Gill when she moved to London, as she had been at Leeds with several of my friends.

Perhaps I think of her in a number of different ways:

Book club – meeting up more or less every 6 weeks for the last 29 years. Always a joy to see Gill. And she was often an ally in respect of getting certain types of books agreed by the group! Attached a couple of pics from lockdown book club (previous email).
Family – in particular a lovely Friday night dinner hosted by her and Andy, with Simon and Alexis’s family, where Bob & I thought that Zak, Mia, Lauren and Max were such great role models for Jamie We were so thrilled that Andy was well enough to come to Jamie’s bar mitzvah – attached (previous email) beautiful pic of Andy and Gill taken that day (July 2017) at the Haven.

And on the subject of family – when I mentioned I was going to Liverpool (to see my great-niece), Gill told me about the display in the museum and was chuffed when I sent her a picture of her grandpa’s coat and knife.

Socially – at all the lovely simchas over the years, or restaurants, theatre (I had just organised a group of us to go to Guys & Dolls next March, with the date based around Gill’s birthday as she said it is her favourite musical), cinema, friends’ homes, group walks. Pics attached of a couple of lockdown socials, the Walkie Talkie group at Ivinghoe, getting together when Miriam was over in 2020.
One to one – over the last few years, I had more individual contact with Gill. She was the only person who would still telephone unscheduled just for a chat – which was always so nice! We had a few walks together in the pandemic, sometimes with my dog, or in Mill Hill (including ending sitting in her garden eating the most amazing shakshuka which she made. I’ll include in this category being in her kitchen when she was getting ready for book club (she was always organised and calm), including when I once arrived an hour early as I’d forgotten the clocks had changed!

We talked about every topic under the sun, including our families (of course), things we’d read or watched, but also particularly work from time to time – our careers had some similarities eg changing roles around same time, things not necessarily working out as expected or working for challenging people, self-doubt at times, and caring about (or being frustrated by) our colleagues/teams/bosses. I know Gill took her roles seriously and conscientiously, but also got satisfaction from working for companies with interesting/socially positive outputs such as the museum design firm and more recently the architect practice.

And to give you an idea of our shared sense of humour, the only birthday card I kept this year is the one from Gill, stuck up next to me here at my desk, of ‘Apostrophe Man’.

Sweden – I wanted to go and visit my sister Tracey in Stockholm and tentatively asked Gill to join me. She tentatively accepted, and the trip was a resounding success. We enjoyed the travelling, scenery, museums, food, and lots of talking. Attached [this one] is a montage I made of those very special few days.

It’s heart-breaking that we now have only memories of Gill, but she has certainly left us much to treasure.