Hello to everybody and welcome . Today is to be a celebration of the life of Julie and of her ongoing legacy . Obviously when someone as much loved as Julie dies there is deep sadness at her passing . The pain of grief is just as much part of life as the joy of love It is the price we pay for love, the cost of commitment. To ignore this fact, or to pretend that it is not so, is to put on emotional blinkers which leave us unprepared for the losses that will inevitably occur in our own lives and unprepared to help others cope with losses in theirs.” The Family have already had a service at her graveside in Coupeville USA on Whidbey Island where some of her cremated remains were interred under a cypress tree . A beautiful peaceful spot adjacent to Admiralty inlet where waters from the Pacific Ocean which have travelled along the straights of Juan de Fuca enter into Puget sound . A place where Orcas swim , seals raise their young and Eagles soar . Snow capped mountains are visible on all sides including . Mount Baker , Mount Raineer , the Cascades and the Olympics ( W A) . Some say there are also vampires and werewolves living in the twilight forests of the Olympic national park . Julie had read about them and seen the films as I am sure many of you have also . As I said Today is to be a celebration of the life of Julie and of her ongoing legacy . The family and I truly want you to celebrate that life and legacy . It is foolish and wrong to focus on mourning for those who have died . Rather we should be thankful that such wonderful people lived and we should celebrate their lives and legacy . Actually its OK and natural to mourn a person but it is true that we only mourn because of the great times we shared and that sadness reflects those great joys but does not ultimately diminish them . It is those Joys we wish to celebrate. A family friend in the US told us that when we are feeling sad and missing loved ones what we are actually feeling is love and Julie was loved very much. Now I would like to tell you some facts about Julies life – taken from ( and “ thankfully “ shorter than ) the eulogy at her American service . Julie was born on 8th January 1958 in Wembley within earshot of the old Wembley Stadium the spiritual home of Football . She was to be the only child of Fred and Rose Coker and although she had no siblings she was blessed with a great number of Cousins , Aunts and Uncles of the close knit Coker family . Many members of that family are here today – notably __Jennifer Cream_______________ __________Gil Coker__________ _______Michelle Cream_________________ ____________________ She was born late in the marriage and was thus one of the youngest in that family and was deeply loved by everybody . Her roots were very typical of the London Working class , her father being a lorry driver , her mum an occasional shop assistant and home worker and her Aunt Kate a seamstress at the Famous Harvey Nichols Department Store . As a child she was a frequent visitor to the Portobello Road Market where Auntie Kate lived above the shops and her dad often did extra part time work . Unusually her dad was the child of the locally well known “ Nanny Coker “ who was the ( dare I say illegitimate ) Daughter of Henry Fox-Strangways The 5th Earl of Ilchester and his employee Rosetta Coker of more humble roots . 1 Nanny Coker had been brought up away from the public gaze in France . On the untimely death at the age of 58 of her father , now Lord Illchester , she was living at an expensive French finishing school . Promptly , although she was still a teenager she was disowned by his family and finished her education in the rough but happy streets of North London . This story was a skeleton in the cupboard for the earlier generation of Cokers and was only discovered by Julie when as a child she was doing her French homework and was stunned that “ Nanny “ Coker spoke the language fluently and asked why . BREAK FOR READING BY EMMA HINCHLIFFE, POEM EMMA WROTE FOR HER MUM Julie had a wonderfully happy childhood. She often talked of good times with her parents and took great pleasure in telling her children, Adam and Emma all about Nanny Rose and Granddad Fred who unfortunately they never got to meet but We are all links in a chain of life which started in pre historic times and which hopefully will go on into an infinite future. Julie received a solid education and after school easily got a good job working for the local Trustee Savings Bank in Southall where she made many good lifelong friends . These joyous times were regularly punctuated with Family events – Birthdays , weddings , Christmas parties , Work related Parties , and Random Parties . Julies Mum before her like Julie was renown for hosting great parties with excessive quantities of food . If 30 people were coming there would be enough sausages for 30 people – but there would be a choice – enough pizza for 30 people enough salad – enough chicken – enough cake – enough trifle . Guests came hungry, went home full, often with a plate or two of extra left over food as well. The Hinchliffe Family will be proud to carry on this tradition with tonight’s buffet .The soundtrack to these family events was more often than not, David Cassidy, Julies lifelong idol who she did get to meet a few years back after years of concert going, often with her cousin and fellow Cassidy fanatic Gil. Meeting David was a dream of Julies and she never forgot that day, or the fact that she had got a kiss and a hug from the man himself! In memory of mum we would now like to break and listen to one of her favourite David Cassidy songs. Cherish. As these things happen her life then took a turn with the shocking death of her own Father of an aortic aneurysm on Christmas Eve when she was just 18 leaving her as the main breadwinner at the home she shared with her mother Rose and her Auntie Kate at Allenby Road Southall . He was about the same age then as Julie was when she passed within minutes also due to her aorta failing . A few years later she met her future husband Jon. Hinchliffe. Despite the fact that Julie said Jon was wearing the strangest suit she‘d ever seen when they met, romance bloomed and in quite a short time they were married and blessed with their son Adam. The newly-weds had plans to move out of London to where they thought their children would have a better upbringing – the Isle of Wight . They planned to “ homestead “ I.e to move from property to property renovating and improving as they went and making a profit on the sales of those homes . After the passing of her mother Rose they moved into the home that Julie inherited in Southall ( Southall/Greenford Borders as it was refered to to sound more posh ) The home needed a lot of work done as although on the earlier death of her father the mortgage was paid off by insurance there had been little money for maintenance in the intervening years . They lived there for a further year with young Adam until the home was finished and then sold it . They moved from there to Wandsworth into a run down ex-rental Victorian terraced home owned by Jon's parents in an up and coming area . Similarly they did that place up with some of the proceeds from that sale . In due course this house was also sold and together with the money from the sale of the coker home in Allenby road gave Julie , Jon Adam and their newly born daughter Emma Rose the opportunity to not only move to the Isle of Wight but have enough to start what was to become a residential property rental Business . On what was to be one of very many happy family trips , Jon and Julie visited Abbotsbury on the Illchester estate in Devon and were struck by the likeness of her Father Fred and the family pictures on display particularly the evident “ Coker nose “ Possibly brought on by the sudden death of her mother Julie sadly fell ill with Agoraphobia. She battled with the illness for over a year before finally laying it to rest with support and love from her family and friends . It was again a very strange thing that one of the scary trips that Jon and Julie made was to Cowes at a quiet time to reduce the fear factor and they happened to go into Yankee Doodles , a shop that sold specifically American products . The shop was having a lottery promotion with the first prise a trip to New York . They entered and Jon just knew as he told Julie that they would win . Sure enough they did and Julie had to go alone on a Isle of Wight Radio quiz show to against some other entrants to secure the prize . Julie always had a wonderful memory and new so many random facts that her and Jon often won prises at Quiz nights even against much larger teams . She did indeed win the Trip . One family heirloom ( all be it being cheap plastic ) is the prise for winning together with the Fry Family ( who are here today ) is the award for being Quiz Champions at the Local Carisbrooke Church of England Primary School . We won that event two years running against bigger teams . Julies great knowledge and Jons scientific reasoning complimented each other so well . The agoraphobia was still an occasional problem and Julie all but backed out of the holiday she had won but tough Love from Jon forced her to face her fears . The trip was a great success – a second honeymoon even and it set in place the desire to move to the USA – though certainly not to New York . BREAK FOR POEM RECORDED BY CARLY HATCHER, FAMILY FRIEND As the kids grew up and the family settled on the Island, Julie was a great supporter of Carisbrooke Church of England Primary School, which both the children attended. She was always active in helping and participating in many events through them and making many many friends there quite a few of whom are here today – Notably the Fry Family but also ______________________ ________________________ ___________________ Partly because their home had a large garden and front room and was close to the school but mainly because Julie was so friendly, kind, approachable and welcoming that home became practically an “ open house “ where parties were held and where events were planned and where trips departed from . . As many of you know Emma was born on Halloween and her yearly Halloween parties became the Halloween party to go to . Picture chattering happy gatherings of at first young girls and boys in their scariest costumes blending into teenagers and finally into young Ladies and men as the years passed by and you have it down to a T . A FAMILY FRIEND CAROLE FRY HAS WRITTEN A LETTER IN MEMORY TO JULIE, THIS WILL NOW BE READ BY EMMA AND JULIES CLOSE FRIEND CAROLINE BRACKENBURY As the children passed through the Isle of Wight school system the family bought , renovated, then let out a dozen houses there . They lived mainly off the rental income which was not that much greater than the mortgage and maintenance costs but they were very happy in the house in Carisbrooke Road that I mentioned earlier . Jon had seriously rebuilt it from a 3 bedroom “ Chalet bungalow” into a 5 bedroom . Jon. may have done the building work but it was Julie that made that house a true home . In a move that as you can see is going to be very successful they borrowed against those rental homes and invested in purchasing the former military barracks - Northwood Camp ( where we now are standing ) and in constructing a new military history museum . After some difficulties with the original manager this new charitable museum – the Museum of Conflict, History and Remembrance is a completely separate new charitable venture rising partly from the ashes of that old museum . Back to Julies Life - Since the New York trip and a month long holiday to Disneyland and the west coast of America, the idea of moving to the USA became a firm dream for the family . It was universally decided that the best time to do this was between the kids being at high school and university . They applied for a Visa called the EB5 which involved making an at risk investment in a business that could be showed to result in the employment of at least ten Americans in a specific area – in our case SODO Seattle . Money was borrowed and invested and the ball was rolling . Things took so long, thanks mainly to bureaucracy, that the family ended up delaying the permanent move till Emma had finished her degree at Portsmouth University and Adam was working at Morrisons . Emma achieved a first class degree in no small part due to the constant support and encouragement of Julie . The Family, together with her friend Caroline who is here today, had a great day out there attending her award ceremony . Many family friends who Adam made at Morrisons have also come today to celebrate Julies life. WE WILL NOW STOP FOR A READING BY JON HINCHLIFFE OF ONE OF HIS AND JULIES FAVORITE POEMS - THE RUYBYAT OF OMAR KYAN After deciding to emigrate to the states the task of finding a new home began in earnest. Julie and Jon settled on the small town of Coupeville by narrowing down the search using a website called find your spot dot comm and during a very happy “ Third Honeymoon “ trip around the general area . Although the full family move was not completed until under a year ago , they had bought a building plot and had been building the Family dream home on it for over three years and Emma has been studying for her masters and now PHD at the University of Washington in Seattle since 2012 . She knows that none of these achievements would have been possible without the unwavering love and support of her mum. Julie had been very happy with the almost finished home and the people she met locally . The carpets were down the place tastefully decorated to her wishes and some ( though by no means all ) of her ornaments were positioned . She was so looking forward to settling down finally and being able to share some of that happiness with friends and family, it is a deep tragedy that her dream was not to be enjoyed for long but at least she did attain it . The long sought after “ certificate of occupancy “ had been obtained only two days before her death though the family had been occupying the home for considerably longer . Like all lives and families there were occasional issues but the good certainly outweighed the bad and the family , thanks to the tireless and unconditional Love of Julie remained tight and best friends as they will remain so . She was a lover , A best friend , a loyal wife , a wonderful mother of two great kids . She was “our Julie” and although she will be greatly missed her spirit will live on in her legacy and in the good influence that she was to all that knew her . THE FAMILY WOULD NOW LIKE TO INVITE YOU ALL TO ENJOY SOME OF THE FAMOUS HINCHLIFFE HOSPITALITY AS WE CONTINUE TO CELEBRATE THE LIFE OF A TRULY WONDERFUL WOMEN.