Fiddle
Making music reached Lucy rather late in life. Most people when they qualify for a free bus pass and a winter coal allowance would take out their knitting and put their feet up. Instead, Lucy rekindled her love of the fiddle, something she hadn't played for half a century.
In her own words:
It was purely by chance that I fell into a fiddle groove: I was wandering round a car boot sale with a friend, and had spent all my money on a plethora of useless items. Suddenly I saw, like Pandora's Box, a fiddle case, and inside it a fiddle. I wanted that fiddle like I never wanted anything before. I had happy memories of playing, briefly, as an 11 year old, and I wanted some more. I borrowed money from my amused friend, bought the fiddle, and, soon afterwards, some earplugs, and started on a journey that took me to completion of the Folk and Traditional Music Degree at the University of Newcastle, via Folkworks classes.
Following her death in September 2016, Stuart Hardy wrote:
Lucy was a stunning lady who gave so much to those around her. She was a passionate fiddle player with whom I have been delighted to work over the last fifteen years or so. She was also a great supporter of the arts throughout her life. It was, however, her response to the injustices she saw around her that truly marked her out. Not content merely to point them out and then stand idly by, she set up the Crossings project to help asylum seekers in our area and worked tirelessly on their behalf. She will be sorely missed but leaves behind a great legacy of a life well lived. Many thanks, Lucy.
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