Dorothy Jean Farrow

A eulogy delivered by Alison Lazaroff-Somssich for her late aunt Dorothy Jean Farrow who passed away on February 2nd 2023.

Thank you everyone for coming to remember and celebrate our dearest Dorothy. I'll just say a few words about her long, adventurous life which was full of travel, photography, music, lots of coincidences, friends, colleagues, Bridge, Scrabble, (other people's) dogs and cats and of course her beloved maths students.  

Dorothy was born in Lancashire, Northern England in 1928. Her father Jim had worked in the cotton mills since he was a boy of 11, eventually becoming the manager. Her mother Connie was an excellent pianist who played in the pit for silent films and at church and musical gatherings in the village.  

Dorothy was a big bouncing baby, 10 lb 10 oz and was born at home, apparently on the kitchen table! She had magnificent thick, black curly locks, of which Dorothy was always very proud.  

Dorothy was a happy studious little girl and told us she was so bright she started school at age 3! Dorothy's sister was born at this time, our mother Joan. They had a happy home life but were very different little girls. Dorothy was very bright and very gorgeous and Joan was inclined to be a little bit grumpy and not interested in any schoolwork - only wanting to sing and dance and play the violin. I always felt that Dorothy would've happily been an only child as she loved being the centre of attention (as you all probably well know.)  

Dorothy's high school was really one of the great loves of her life. She went to Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School in the beautiful countryside of Waterfoot . She and Joan would catch a steam train from Summerseat to school. Dorothy excelled of course at school and due to a particularly good teacher discovered her love of mathematics. It was unusual in those days for girls to be interested or encouraged to excel at science or maths and Dorothy was the only girl in her final year of the senior brighter students. Dorothy loved her school life and talked about BRGS, her school so much to us.  

After school, Dorothy went to Manchester University to study Maths and Science. She apparently was engaged to a fellow student Fred Tomlinson, who, incidentally wrote the music to a few Monty Python songs.

This was always a bit of a family secret, and our family never spoke about it but something happened and it was called off and Dorothy had some sort of breakdown and didn't finish her exams. However she was immediately employed as a maths teacher at Runtin Hill, a beautiful girls school in Norfolk.    

Dorothy had found her life's calling. She taught at many lovely private girls schools all over England, including her beloved old BRGS and in 1958 she went to Johannesburg to teach at the elite Roedean Girls School for 3 years before coming back to the UK.  

Dorothy loved South Africa. She had an adventurous spirit and loved travelling. She was an avid photographer and took hundreds and hundreds of slides which our family used to watch at very very long and hot slide evenings at Grandma and Grandad's.  

Our parents, Joan and Theo immigrated to Brisbane in 1962 with Dorothy's mum and dad following them to live at the Gold Coast a few years later.  Dorothy eventually decided to come as well. She arrived in Southport in 1970 and soon began teaching there at St Hilda's School where she taught Maths and eventually became Head of Mathematics until she retired in 1996.  

I was eight and my sister Rosalin, seven, when our Auntie Dorothy came here to Queensland. We lived in Brisbane but every weekend our parents would drive down to see Grandma and Grandad and we would visit Auntie Dorothy. I remember her three little houses so well and found her exotic South African knickknacks and books about how to speak Afrikaans and various artworks so fascinating.

Rosalin and I would sometimes stay during the school holidays with Dorothy. She would give us a mark out of 10 for how well we washed and dried the dishes and we listened to her record collection - sometimes Bach but more often Val Doonican! Dorothy took us on birdwatching walks and we played recorder music. Dorothy tried to help me with maths because I struggled, but I was too scared to say that I didn't understand. "Do you follow? Do you follow??! " Well I didn't. However, Dorothy's love of maths was passed on to Rosalin, who now herself is a high school maths teacher in England.  

Despite devoting her life to children, Dorothy really wasn't fond of them in their normal state. They had to be very good, very quiet, very studious and not noticeable, and extremely interested in everything that she was interested in. This proved to be a big problem when our little sister Susanna was old enough to stay with Dorothy. Susanna was not quiet, not always good or studious and she definitely was noticeable. She found the enforced stays with Dorothy fairly excruciating. At least when Rosalin and I stayed with Dorothy we had each other. However, when Susanna grew up she took Dorothy totally under her wing and would look after her when she visited Hobart, taking her off on many adventures in Tasmania and out for exotic meals (some of which weren't quite appreciated by Dorothy).

Auntie Dorothy was always a very special part of our family. We have a small family, and Dorothy was a huge presence in our lives. We went on drives with her, we cringed in the backseat while she drove us. We went on walks. We played Scrabble and recorders and we listened to music. We went to Sinclairs coffee shop and had sherry and seaweed crackers while watching Letters and Numbers on television and we tried to phone her on her mobile phone. We tried to teach her how to use her mobile phone and not to mention her computer, which wasn't always easy!

Dorothy wasn't an easy person, as you probably all have experienced. Occasionally, we imagined she could feature in an episode of Midsummer Murders, but we loved our Auntie Dorothy always and when she smiled there was never a more lovely auntie in the world!