Helen Craik, a former auxiliary nurse in the research department of Aberdeen maternity hospital, has died aged 92.
She also devoted her time in the service of the congregation of Summerhill Church, was a baker of note and active in the social life of Caledonian Golf Club and Legion Scotland.
In retirement she volunteered with the charity Cornerstone in the city.
Her earliest days were spent in Canada but she considered herself a proud Aberdonian throughout the rest of her life.
Helen was born on May 1 1930 in Canada, the youngest of Helen and George McKerren’s five children.
Back to Scotland
When she was nine months old, the family returned to Aberdeen and a home in West North Street before a move to Sandilands Drive.
Her father was a newsagent and Helen undertook her education at Middle School.
When she left school, she began a secretarial career, working first with a shipbuilding company and then with jewellery firms.
She met her future husband, James Craik, an officer in Aberdeen City Police at the dancing at Beach Ballroom.
They married at Geyfriars Church, Aberdeen, on October 2 1954 and went on to have two of a family, James and Gillian.
Married life began sharing a home with Helen’s parents before the couple moved to a police house in Eday Road, Summerhill, where Helen remained until her death. James rose to become an inspector and retired from Grampian Police.
As a young woman, Helen had the ambition to train as a nurse but her brother talked her out of it, arguing there was no money in the profession.
Ambition achieved
However, she fulfilled her ambition in later life by starting work as an auxiliary nurse at the maternity hospital, a job she loved.
Helen was widowed in 2006 and in time she became grandmother to three and a great-grandmother to one.
One of her enduring commitments was to the church. She loved being on tea duty for which she loved to bake and also baked Christmas cakes for friends, family and neighbours.
Helen remained fit and active and highly sociable in her later years, however, her health declined after a fall and a subsequent stroke and she died peacefully in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
You can read the family’s announcement here.
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