My friend Frances Ludlow, who has died of lung cancer aged 68, worked as a librarian at the University of Sheffield for nearly 30 years. She was a multiple scleroris sufferer for 20 years and volunteered with the MS Society. She bore ill-health with stoicism and graciousness, but commented recently on the unfairness of it all.
Frances was the youngest of four children, born in Liverpool to Clare (nee Reynolds), a nurse, and Stan Ludlow, a teacher. The family moved to Formby where Frances attended Seafield grammar school. She trained as a therapeutic radiographer at the Royal hospital in Sheffield, working at Weston Park Cancer Treatment Centre.
She and I became friends in 1975 while involved in the Justice and Peace Network and working as play volunteers at St Marie’s Catholic cathedral in Sheffield. I moved into the bedsit above hers and knew she was in when Leonard Cohen droned up through the floorboards. Our landlord complained when debating activists spilled out of our bedsits on to the landings. Frances pointed out to him that it was for charity “and charity begins at home”, but his response was “Not in this home it doesn’t!”
In 1978 Frances and I travelled overland to Delhi through Afghanistan and Iran, countries rich with culture before the devastation that followed. On reaching Calcutta she insisted we volunteer with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, working for several months caring for abandoned babies. Travelling on to Burma and Thailand, we returned to the UK after a year of adventures.
Frances retrained as a librarian at Aberystwyth University, then worked at the University of Sheffield Health Sciences Library from 1986 until her retirement in 2013. A PhD student said she was the best librarian ever. An ex-colleague described her as a kind, gentle soul who could be mischievous. She once came to a red party dressed in blue, with green hair. She stood in Red Square, Moscow, asking guards at the tomb “Is Len in?”
Just before her librarian course, Frances did a theology degree at Southampton University, gaining firsts in all her assignments. When asked, she described herself as a Heracleon Gnostic with a Buddhist edge. She was a mystic, lover of crystals and meditation, having strong belief in the good of humankind but a realistic view of their shortcomings. She liked her own company, was a fan of Liverpool FC and radio cricket commentaries. Frances was generous, kind, intelligent, brave, a good friend but no saint as she could be annoying and stubborn.
Frances is survived by her brother, Mark, her sisters, Claire-Mary and Ann, four nephews, Safy, Aloui, Dani, Liam, and a niece, Arabella.
