My mother, Gill Hoffman, who has died aged 94, was energised by new experiences, new surroundings and new learning.
When her husband, Walter, joined the United Nations in 1946, Gill relished the experience of living in New York and welcomed with equal enthusiasm two subsequent removals to Mexico, the first from 1958 to 1960, the second from 1961 to 1965. For Gill, this meant setting up new family homes, sorting out schooling for her three daughters and learning a new language, Spanish.
Though she never went to university, Gill was a true autodidact, a voracious reader who communicated this love to her daughters. Discussion at the dinner table and get-togethers with friends ranged over issues from current politics to philosophy and the meaning of life.
Gill was born in the East End of London, the first of three daughters of Reuben and Millie Goldenberg. Reuben, the eldest of nine children, owned a clothing factory which provided employment for his brothers. Millie was a milliner and also a pianist who played accompaniments to the silent films in their local cinema.
For her first seven years, Gill was an only child and from her parents got the love of books, music and the theatre that would sustain her all her life. She went to local schools and, at the outbreak of the second world war, joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, leaving the comfort of the family home for a life in a series of military bases in the UK.
A blind date with Walter Hoffman in the middle of the blitz began a romance that lasted all their lives. They married in 1944, and Walter joined the UN two years later. By 1952 they were a family with three daughters, Judith, Dilys and me.
Gill was a feminist and was determined that her daughters would go to university, to take advantage of the opportunities that had not been available to women of previous generations. Although Gill never pursued a formal career, she did freelance secretarial work and later became a Braille transcriber. She made her choices and was happy with them, but was frustrated that often women in her position were undervalued.
Gill’s strength of personality, clarity of vision and most of all her capacity to enjoy the best of life, no matter what the circumstances, left an indelible mark on all who knew her.
Gill and Walter left New York in 1978 on Walter’s retirement and moved back to London. Walter died in 2013. Gill is survived by her daughters, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
