My sister, Rosemary Summers, who has died aged 85, was a general practitioner who demonstrated her generosity of spirit not just through her work but by throwing open her large house in Cambridge to anyone who had become a little lost in the hurly-burly of life.
For 35 years Rosemary ran 9 Adams Road as a haven not only for her immediate family but for many others, including young people, the unemployed, artists, gardeners and PhD students. Her hard work and wise counsel, allied to the benefits of communal living, touched numerous lives.
Born in Cambridge into a family of doctors and academics, Rosemary was the daughter of Jack Roughton, a physiologist, and Alice (nee Hopkinson), a GP and psychiatrist. After Cambridgeshire high school for girls, Rosemary gained a first in anthropology at Girton College, Cambridge, and married Frank Summers, also an anthropologist, in 1953. They had three children before she embarked on a research studentship at a laboratory in California run by the brilliant American chemist Linus Pauling.
On her return from the US she and Frank separated. Rosemary then worked in the accident and emergency department at Addenbrooke’s hospital in her home city before taking up general practice. As a GP she used hypnosis to produce rapid pain relief and subsequently became secretary of what is now the hypnosis and psychosomatic medicine section of the Royal Society of Medicine.
After the separation (divorce eventually followed in 1973), Rosemary moved with her three children into a flat at No 9, the house where she had grown up and where she gradually assumed responsibility for running the place as our mother’s capacity waned. It remained a great family home and my children always looked forward to holidays there – not least because Rosemary’s teas were legendary.
Among her outstanding achievements was her care for her youngest child, Cathie, who was born with Down’s syndrome. Untypically for the time, Rosemary made no attempt to conceal Cathie from society. With the help and support of a fellow No 9 resident, Anna Lenci, Cathie blossomed, inspiring great affection in all who met her.
Rosemary retired from general practice in 1996. Her elder son, Francis, died in 1978 and Cathie died in 2015. She is survived by her son, John, and me.
