A FORMER Redditch nurse who died earlier this month has left behind a story she wrote on life in the town - chronicling the warmth and affection she was always shown by townsfolk.

Marjorie Moran, 86, (nee Harvey), of Batchley, moved to Redditch from Pontypool when she was 16 to become a nurse.

It was while working at Smallwood Hospital's operating theatre that she first met husband Tony, who was being treated for a burst appendix.

After she left the hospital, Mrs Moran - who was the great niece of Noel Coward - also worked as a nurse at the Monochrome factory in Studley Road and at HDA.

It was while looking through her late mum's belongings last week that her daughter, Elizabeth Peart, found a story which she had written about her experiences in the town.

Mrs Peart said: "It was very sad finding this story my mother had written. "But throughout, she expresses just how much she loved this town - but she also wrote how much it had changed.

"My mother wrote: 'Everyone said hello and really cared how you were, well, everyone knew each other anyway.

'There were so many characters and life was so much more colourful than today.

'Probably if I was 17 today I would think differently, but I wouldn't change anything'."

In her last chapter, Mrs Moran wrote: "Thank you people of Redditch for taking me into your hearts and your homes.

"To the young people of Redditch, whose parents or grandparents are no longer with us, honour them because they really were the salt of the earth."