MCGUINNESS, Elaine Margaret

McGUINNESS

Elaine Margaret

7.10.1937 - 24.9.26

Elaine, who would have turned 89 on 7th October, died as she lived: on her own terms and independent till the last.

Beloved mother of Dean Maxwell Sweetman, grandmother of Barn and Jake - all three happily married - and great grandmother of six, Elaine was a fixture on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Up until retirement she managed some 200 commercial properties there, and she knew half the neighbourhood by name. She read avidly, kept up her artistic work, volunteered and stayed sharp till the end. Politics, sport or whatever was in the papers that morning - she could hold her own. She is also survived by two of her three siblings, including her wonderful younger brother Graham and his equally wonderful wife Vicky.

Fiercely bright, independent, practical and loyal, she told it as it was and suffered no fools. You always knew where you stood with her. Those same qualities carried her through more than a few hard stretches. In turn she has several loyal friends, especially Tracy, whose care for her will never be forgotten. In life and in death, as the song says, "she did it her way".

Elaine now joins the love of her life and her first fiancé, Brian Glover, who tragically died in his early twenties. She carried a torch for him for seventy years.

Rest in peace,

darling Elaine.