My mother-in-law, Euphemia "Phemie" Shotton, who has died aged 89, led a life of small, private kindnesses. She had a gift for maintaining friendships over decades with all kinds of people. In her village, Grundisburgh, Suffolk, her warm welcome and her cooking were legendary, and she used her baking as a way of connecting with others. She never visited without bringing a delicious, freshly baked, foil-wrapped loaf or cake (or both). She baked the fish-delivery lady's wedding cake, and left a slice of tea bread for the milkman every week with his payment.
The eldest of three sisters brought up in Stockport as Scottish Presbyterians and Manchester Guardian readers, Phemie trained during the war as a nursery teacher. The deprivation she saw in Wythenshawe persuaded her to train as a children's social worker, with posts in Middlesex and York. After her father died, she returned to the north-west to live and work in Wilmslow, near her mother.
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