My mother-in-law, Ellen Nicholls, who has died aged 104, was a child of her time. She belonged to the generation of women who accepted their lot and got on with their lives, with no bitterness and no apparent regret.
Born Ellen Horton in South Elmsall, a West Yorkshire mining community, she knew tragedy when her older brother, Alma, was killed in the first world war, aged 17. Like so many young men, he had lied about his age to fight for his country.
Ellen left school at 14 and went into service in a Scarborough boarding house. She later worked in a mill in Shipley, where the owner provided her with ballet lessons. Despite her early promise as a ballet dancer, she was never able to fulfil her potential.
She married Sam Nicholls, a miner in Frickley Colliery. They loved going to dances together and would cycle or walk for miles to get to them. Ellen devoted her married life to supporting Sam through his gruelling shift work, and to bringing up their two sons.
Ellen enjoyed cooking for us all and we have a letter she wrote about the Christmas cake she had sent us. It displays her wry sense of humour as she relates how she had to substitute many of the ingredients and ended up putting the rum into her tea and spilling the tea leaves into the cake mix.
She also loved poetry; even in the week before she died she could still remember poems that she had learned off by heart at school and would recite them to her grandchildren.
It was heart-warming to see the care that Ellen received towards the end of her life. Michelle Mottershead, the centre manager at Housing 21 Sycamore Hall, Bainbridge, where Ellen lived for some years, said: "Ellen was simply a pleasure to know and a true character, with so many tales to tell. She wasn't afraid of saying what she wanted and she was a true perfectionist. We all respected the fact that at such a great age she would not compromise over her standards; and why should she?"
Sam died in 1976. Ellen is survived by her sons, Kenneth and Robert (my husband), seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
