A life of Escapism

We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of Annika Birgitta, who is much missed by her family and friends.

She passed away peacefully at Nobels’ Hospital on the 8^th March, this year, following a serious fall.

Annika’s life started in Ethopia on January 13^th1964 and she had a wonderful childhood being looked after by her devoted nanny Negatwa. She then moved with the family to Stockholm where her sister, Christina was born. Her life would change forever, she would no longer be an only child. The family moved again, back to the Isle of Man to start a new life, firstly in Onchan, where Annika attended Onchan primary school and then later in Peel, where at the age of ten Annika was enrolled at the Buchan.

Here she developed her two lifelong passions, English literature and riding, excelling at both. The heatwave days of the 1970s were spent picking strawberries in the back garden of her childhood home, sanding the flagpole and swimming in the Peel Lido.

After a degree in publishing, from Oxford Polytechnic, Annika spent a brief time working in London, before returning to the Isle of Man in her late twenties.

While temping, she met and married her first husband Stephen, returning to Africa for her honeymoon before beginning married life, first in Douglas and later in a family home in Ramsey, which she filled with love and books and animals.

Annika or Annie as she liked to be called, loved animals, and she always had pets, first cats, then added dogs, horses, chickens and briefly, even pigs. She wanted to recreate the idyllic childhood she had enjoyed in Addis Ababa.

In May 1994 her first child was born, Antony Laurence, followed two years later, by Jonathan George.

Her children enjoyed an outdoors life with sport, camping and kayaking.

She divorced Stephen in 2012 and married John, who shared her love of horses and with whom she spent several happy years before his death.

Annie had a great sense of humour. Something she shared with her family. Playing different roles to suit her audience. Her sister became Aunt Batty, her childhood home, Hell Hall. Difficult situations often ended in laughter.

Earlier this year she had gone to Prague to celebrate her 60^th Birthday.

She had just bought a holiday home in Greece, in the romantic harbour of Symi, having visited with her first husband a couple of years before. She was learning Greek, to add to the other languages she already spoke. She was looking forward to spending the winter months away from the Island in the sun, eating good sea food with a glass of wine.

Annie had an incredibly full life.

 As we formally say “Goodbye” we know that she is still with us. That her energy and craziness gives us all memories to cherish.

I think of her in Symi, tanned, happy. A glass of wine in one hand, a cigarette in the other, sitting on the terrace outside her house, watching the sun go down over the harbour. The end of a perfect day.