LIZ WITH BARBARA HARVEY, 7TH AUGUST 1999 OLLIE, NINA AND LIZ IN THE GARDEN AT GREAT TEW in irony and humour. She was fun to meet, and fun to work Grandma more even than the wonderful experiences she with. Calling upon all these qualities, Liz worked patiently curated for them at Tulip Tree House. Together, Liz and the girls over the next several years to coax the disaffected back into would spend hours happily inventing new taxonomies for the college, maintaining contact with the unreconciled and assuring shell collection, or hosting tea parties on hitherto off-limits Somervillians that – whatever their views – they were always china. And the girls knew their grandma so well. Ollie recalls welcome. And, upon these foundations, Liz built the Somerville how, when he, Nancy, Nina and Maxine once arrived at Great Association we know today. Tew for the weekend, after dark, his suggestion that they head There were no lengths to which Liz wouldn’t go to create an inside to look for grandma was met with complete incredulity by interesting programme for alumni. In addition to the many Nina. ‘Don't be silly, daddy, there's a full moon! Grandma will be professional and subject-based groups she established and ran weeding the borders.' with such aplomb, there were also trips to the British Museum, 2023 was a particularly tragic year for Liz’s family, with the loss reunions in New York, the now legendary Swan Hellenic cruises of Ollie and Nancy’s daughter Maxine preceding Liz’s death by and the Somerville book groups which continue to this day. Liz only a few months. For those who knew her, Liz bore this unjust also revelled in Somervillian achievements, and lived by the blow with all her characteristic stoicism – yet it seemed deeply assumption that whatever the story, there was a Somervillian in unjust that she should have to bear this grief for her family at the thick of it – and she was always right. There were also the a time when her own health was failing. Liz herself died several innumerable lunches, hosted both at Great Tew and in College. months later, in August 2023. She carried on caring for others, At one time, Liz estimated that she was attending up to 180 lunches a year, and would joke about eating for Somerville. while downplaying her own worsening health, until the very end. People sometimes asked Liz how she managed it all. Her The many overlapping spheres of Liz’s life – her love of response varied. To some, she spoke of the undiminished joy Somerville, her genius for friendship, and the importance of that she felt walking into College under the redbrick arches Great Tew, come together in one memory shared by Caroline each morning. To others, her response was simpler yet: “I just Barron. It was summer 2016, at the end of a fundraising event like talking to Somervillians”. This, surely, was the ultimate for the church of St Michael in Great Tew. In the evening, with secret of her success, and the reason so many of us came to the festivities completed, a few people drifted back to Tulip love her. Tree House where Liz turned the remains of the lunch into a It is perhaps surprising for those who knew Liz as the delicious evening meal, washed down with some excellent wine. quintessential Somervillian, who was always there at the end The guests scattered themselves around the garden, gossiping of the phone or as the welcome face at a Somerville event, quietly as fireflies circled overhead, the roses nodded sleepily, a to learn that she had another, more personal life outside couple of cats skitted in and out of the herbaceous border and Somerville. Yet this was a part of Liz’s existence that was deeply the light slowly faded, slowly, very slowly. Liz was in her element precious to her, as the beautiful tribute given by Liz’s son Ollie doing what she did so supremely well: welcoming, organising, so clearly testified at Liz’s Memorial Service. listening and laughing, embraced in the garden that she had At Great Tew, Liz created a sanctuary of her own design. It loved and created. was a place of film nights in the bothy, her shell and china Liz is survived by her brother John Greenwood, her son Ollie and collections, her wonderful garden, and most of all her family, his wife Nancy, and by their two daughters Nina and Elizabeth. with whom she joyfully shared all these treasures. Her two Betty Cooke, born 16 November 2023, was named in honour of granddaughters, Maxine and Nina, clearly treasured their her grandmother. 41