HUNDREDS of family, friends, colleagues and children packed into All Saints Church yesterday to remember Tracy Burns.
Members of the congregation comforted each other as speakers shared their memories of the fun-loving 35-year-old nursery nurse murdered at the weekend.They spoke of a friend who was always the life and soul of the party and a colleague who had a natural affinity with children and brought laughter to work.The Madness song One Step Beyond signalled the start of the service just after 11 am, filling the St Helier church with a sense of the bubbly girl from Newcastle.The vicar of All Saints, the Rev Geoff Houghton, said: ‘We gather today to give some small expression of that love, to take the opportunity as her friends of saying farewell, before her mum takes her home to Newcastle, and to commend her soul into the everlasting care of God’s love.’A few moments ago, we began with a track from Madness - One Step Beyond - for some of us it’s hard to get the madness, the senseless evil of what has happened, out of our mind.
But this is not the moment to explore those themes.’Rather, today, with the help of others, I invite you to remember and reflect on the Tracy we knew, who was such fun to be with and who had a wonderful gift for working with children - and who herself, at times, was total madness.’His opening words were followed by the song Night Boat to Cairo, also by Madness, and prayers.Reciting W H Auden’s Stop the Clocks, a poem made famous by the film Four Weddings and a Funeral, Mr Houghton gave the first of three readings.
He was followed by the Rev Chris White, representing the Hospital Chaplaincy Team, who read a passage from Romans, and Curate Christine Price, who read verses from St Matthew’s Gospel, which reflected Jesus’s love of children.Stepping back to the lectern, Mr Houghton then spoke of how he knew Tracy from the years she worked at Headstart nursery, which was run in the church hall.He recounted how he owed his last five years at the church to Tracy, recalling how she had one day smelled smoke, alerted him and saved the church from burning down.’So now you know why one of the many things that Tracy was called was the trainee angel,’ he added.He said he remembered her sitting on the church steps with colleagues during a break from work, a cup of coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other.’Often, as I came into church past them I got the feeling sore heads were being nursed,’ he said.
‘At first I put it down to the noise of the children in the hall.
But I soon learned as I got to see countless photographs of the girls on the town of an evening, St Helier beware! And Tracy at the heart of it.
Tracy who knew how to have a great time and was enormous fun to be around - no wonder she had so many, many friends.’He paid special tribute to the strength of Tracy’s loving family and her partner, Philippe, who he said had brought joy into her life and who was there in her hour of need.Her former boss at Headstart and a close friend, Maxine McCreery, said she knew the nursery’s trainee angel, her angel of the north, was now up in heaven telling St Peter about her cross-stitch of the Tyne Bridge.She described the great rapport Tracy had with the children, and how the boys would shout ‘Shearer, Toon Army’ when she came on duty.
And she recalled the many nights out she enjoyed with Tracy, often in fancy dress, which invariably ended in the Havana Club, ‘whether we liked it or not’.Sue Silcox, Tracy’s manager on Robin Ward at the General Hospital, described how the experienced nursery nurse had become an invaluable member of the ward, how she sang to the children and was loved by parents.Mrs Silcox said she would always be remembered for the way she would introduce herself as Tracy - without the E.Members of the congregation were invited to focus on a memory of Tracy as they lit candles at the front of the church as Robbie Williams’s Angels was played.A collection was made at the door for Robin Ward.
Article posted on 19th March, 2004 - 12.00am
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