The varied career of my friend Sue Adamson, who has taken her own life at the age of 52, included working for the fine-china companies Wedgwood and Villeroy & Boch, and as a childminder. More recently she worked as a school dinner lady, in Waitrose supermarket and as a volunteer in her local Mind charity shop.
Sue was born in Alnwick, and grew up nearby in Rothbury, a market town in Northumberland, the only child of Fred and Isabella Slassor, who ran a general store. Sue went to Queen Margaret’s, a boarding school for girls in North Yorkshire, and later, after the death of her father, attended sixth form at Central Newcastle High School, which is where I met her. Another friend describes her arrival at the school as like a breath of fresh air; she was friendly to everyone, cutting through all the cliques. After A-levels, Sue read politics at Newcastle University, staying up all night for the election results in 1983 and crying when her heroine Shirley Williams lost her seat in Crosby – yet somehow breezing through her final exam the next day.
Although she remained a Geordie girl at heart, passionate about all things north-eastern, and with a wealth of funny stories about her upbringing and family in Northumberland, Sue moved south in her 20s and lived in Croydon, south London, for the rest of her life. She had two children: a son, Matthew, from her marriage in 1989 to Pete Adamson, which ended in divorce, and daughter, Lucy, from her relationship with Clive Offer. Sue enjoyed supporting the men in her life in their various sports. During Banstead cricket club’s annual cricket week, she and the children would pitch a tent in the club grounds and often ended up sharing their meals with bemused passersby.
Sue loved reading and kept a list of every book she had read. She was also a fan of Radio 4, the theatre and musicals. Three years ago, she travelled to a family reunion in the US state of Washington and impressed all her friends by embarking on a solo road trip in a camper van.
She was devoted to her mother, who in the 1990s moved south to be close to Sue. It was a big responsibility, particularly in recent years, as Isabella grew frail and had frequent spells in hospital.
Sue kept all her childhood friends and made new ones wherever she went. Her vivacious personality, kindness and huge empathy hid the fact that she had long suffered from depression.
She is survived by Isabella, Matthew and Lucy, and by her partner, Simon Peach.
