This site is a tribute to Barbara McEvoy, who was born in Liverpool on October 20, 1941. She was much loved and will always be remembered as a lady of selfless kindness to others. Donations to the Medicinema Appeal at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, who are creating a family cinema room to support children and their families whilst in hospital. Barbie loved to go to the cinema and this is a fitting tribute to a wonderful lady and her lifelong love of cinema and children. A summary of her eulogy is below: Our very own Songbird, Living Doll and Dancing Queen - Barbie. xxxx

A poem and summary of eulogy below:

Barbie's friends Dawn, John, Lily and George have shared a poem for Barbie:

There once was a lovely angel, sent down from heaven above,

 A lovely petite young lady, sent down for Les to love,

Her name was lovely Barbie and she had a heart of gold,

 She was loved by everyone, both the young and the old.

She had two lovely children, one a boy and one a girl,

Alongside her lovely Les, to her they were her World,

Through the good times and the bad, they went through their life,

 They continued on together, forever, man and wife.

But the angels missed our Barbie and called to take her home,

Unaware of how we'd miss her, now that she is gone.

 But her story isn't over, she's now in heaven with her beau,

Keeping watch over her family, who didn't want to see her go.

But without you our lovely Barbie, things will never be the same,

 And all our love goes with you, until we surely meet again.

Summary of Eulogy:

A Service to Celebrate the life of Barbara McEvoy.   “Barbie”.    1941 -  2024.  
Processional Music. -   Song Bird -  Eva Cassidy
We gather here today to celebrate the life and to honour the memory of Barbara McEvoy. We gathered here just four months ago when Barbie’s beloved husband Les passed away, after 64 wonderful years together. It is Barbie’s passing now that has brought us together but of course it is her life that we wish to remember.
We are here with our shared love, our shared grief and our shared respect and this is certainly an occasion of great sadness but may it also be a time of thanksgiving because we are thankful for the gift of life and we are so thankful that Barbie walked the path of life with us.
 
Eulogy
 
Barbara was born on 20th October 1941 in the middle of World War Two in Liverpool - the city she called home for 83 years. She loved everything about Liverpool and was very proud to be called a scouser. Barb was the eldest daughter of Eveline and George Anderson. Her sister Sandra was born the following year in 1942 and was her best friend and confidante.
 Barbara used to joke that Sandra cramped her style when she went out galivanting in the late 1950’s as she had to take her little sister everywhere with her!
 
On one memorable occasion Barbara had sneaked out at night to meet friends (or most likely a boy) and Sandra had locked the window in Barb’s bedroom, so she couldn’t get back in. She ended up throwing stones at the window of Sandra’s bedroom and eventually Sandra sneaked down to let her in the back door, so that their mum and dad didn’t find out about Barbara’s late night antics. They were the closest of sisters until Sandra sadly died far too young at 64 in 2007.
 
Barb was devastated to lose her wonderful sister and close friend at such an early age. It is lovely that Sandra’s family are here today and that their families keep in touch, visiting each other, both here with Gilly,. Keith and Dennis and in America where Janet and Glenn live and can share such loving memories.
 
Sandra and Barb are now reunited and we are all sure that they will be sipping their favourite Bacardi and Coke and catching up on old times.
 
Barbara had loved days out with her family when she was younger and she brought this love of adventure to her own family. – She often told stories about the great adventures  with her dad George.
 Mum Eveline worked long hours as a publican – running successful, busy pubs in Liverpool, so George, who worked more regular hours at a local bus depot, often took Barb and Sandra out for the day. He took them all over Liverpool, days out to the seaside at Crosby, West Kirby and Freshfield where they picnicked in the sand dunes and also visiting the large city parks, Calderstones, Newsham and Sefton Park with its’ big houses all around the perimeter and its’ lovely lake where Barb remembers feeding the ducks and later taking her own children and grandchildren there too.
 
Barbara had been a bright child and won a place at grammar school, where she did well in her O Levels. Her dad was very keen for her to stay on at school and progress to University, but Barb had other ideas and wanted to start work and earn money.
Barb used to go out most nights of the week and every Saturday night was a Grafton night, which meant dancing. As many of you here today will know – Barbie loved to dance and was often the first up at any party, including at Diane’s 60th Birthday party in 2022, aged 81, where she was still up dancing to New York New York at the end of the night!
Penny – a great friend of Diane and Patrick and who has known Barb for over 30 years, recalls at Adam and Leanne’s wedding in 2018, that Barbie wanted to get on the floor as soon as the live band started to play, Penny had to hold her back until the newly married couple had their first dance!
 Rob and Carol shared many a night dancing to all the songs by Abba. Indeed Barb was dancing away with friends Lily, Dawn and John at The Ranelagh Tavern every Tuesday afternoon until just a couple of months ago. Barb was a lady who loved to dance and loved to join in with the karaoke and fancy dress events too.
 
Many of Alan and Diane’s friends also became great friends with Barbie and Les and she would be thrilled to know that so many of you have made the effort to attend today and to remember all the great memories and celebrate her long and full life.
 
 Les’s sister Irene, regarded Barb as more like her own sister, speaking  weekly on the phone about their growing families. Irene’s three children - Ian, Linda and Jane remember Aunty Barb for her kindness and generosity. Nephew Kenneth and his family knew her as a friendly, loving lady. Carl, Vivian and family have always been part of the family too and enjoyed hearing about days gone by as well as plans for Barb’s next adventures.
 
 Barbie never forgot a birthday or anniversary and always included all those who had married into the family and all the children and grandchildren too.
 
Barbara married Les when both were just 18 and it is testament to their staying power having reached their 64th wedding anniversary in June of this year. Barbara was very proud of her two children Alan born in 1961 and Diane in 1962. She also adored Angela, Kath and Patrick when they married into the family.
 
Barbie and Les had wonderful times together over their years together, both at home and on holiday, travelling across Europe and visiting many parts of the USA including Hollywood, New York, Miami, Las Vegas and San Francisco.
 
In 2006, with the chance to travel to Australia with the family, Barbie was motivated to finally give up smoking in anticipation of the long flight and she never did smoke again. Barbie’s sense of adventure was slightly taken off course when they all landed in Sydney after the long flight and lack of sleep. Diane’s usual scheduling of packing as much into a holiday, meant that within a few hours of arriving in Sydney they were all watching a show at Sydney Opera House and then after just a few hours sleep, the whole family were booked on the 8am Climb up Sydney Harbour Bridge!
 Barbie was all kitted up in the safety climbing gear alongside Les, Alan, Diane, Patrick, Adam and Keir. As they started the ascent of the bridge – poor Barbie suddenly collapsed and had to be rescued by the emergency service, but typically insisted everyone else carried on whilst she recuperated with a nice coffee and a rest!
Barbie had a certificate amongst her belongings that stated she had successfully climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. She seemed to have forgotten to tell them that she did not quite make it!
 
Barbara adored her grandchildren. Rachelle was born first followed in the next few years by Adam, Vanessa and Keir.  Louis and Matthew also joined the family when Alan married Kath. Great grandchildren played a very important part of her life too.  Grace, Harrison, Penelope, Hendrix and Eadie and I know that all of the grandchildren and great grandchildren have their own cherished and treasured memories of Grandma Barbie.
 
Adam recalls teaching her to Jet ski in her 70’s, as well as leading his Grandad and Grandma astray when he visited them in Liverpool. Keir loves to recall how Grandma came to stay every Xmas and when he was very little, holding her hand as she walked him down the stairs with his pillow case full of presents, to see if Santa had left any more under the tree! He used to enjoy the visits to Grandma’s house in Liverpool as she always made a big pan of Scouse with beetroot. He can also recall snorkelling with Barbie at the Barrier Reef and her being braver than he was, as they dived off the boat.
 
Vanessa and Rachelle used to love travelling by train to Nottingham from Liverpool with Grandma, to visit Diane and family. Grandma Barbie always bought sweets and magazines for them to read on the journey and ensured that the travel was just as much of an adventure as the holiday ahead.
 
Barb treasured opportunities to be with grandchildren and great grandchildren and she gave up all of her own holidays from work to look after them through school holidays and indeed on any occasion she could. There was never a thought about her own need for a rest from work, and was one of the most giving human beings ever and always put others before herself.
 
However, everyone in the family of all ages remembers how challenging it was to open the presents from Barbie!! she had a reputation for wrapping presents with so much Sellotape that it took all day to open them! We’ll all make sure that we wrap a few Barbie type  Xmas presents this year in her memory!
 
We are now going to have some moments of reflection as we look at some pictures that capture some of those good times and adventures in Barb’s life, and whilst we listen to Barb’s favourite song
 
“Living Doll”.    by Cliff Richard.
Eulogy (continued)
 
Barbie’s working life was dominated by over 25 years at Rentokil Ltd. It’s funny that she spent so many years working for a company that was known for killing rats, as Barb was petrified of all mice and rats! Diane recalls when mum first started there – as an accounts clerk, she had to do an induction that included a video of lots of rats running around a house and wasn’t sure she would survive working there – but she did and went on to celebrate many a birthday with her friends and colleagues over the years and loved working there, so much so that she worked past the usual retirement age of 60 up until 67.
 
It was whilst working at Rentokil that Barbie won an award known as The Be Proud Awards. This was seen as a prestigious occasion and included a prize for the winners to a European City – in this case to Barcelona.  Les was also invited, and they joined the other prize winners for a weekend, and indeed the photos from the weekend show a very happy, smiling Barbie. She was in her happy place when socialising and especially when on holiday.
 
It was also whilst at Rentokil that Barbie met Ann and they were to become best friends, they bonded over a shared love of visiting new places around Liverpool, cinema, theatre and reading.
 They met at least twice a week and had shows planned right into 2025, which Barb always wrote on her calendar and loved telling all the family all the things she had to look forward to each week.
 Ann was the best friend she could have asked for and she told everyone this – and she meant it. Ann’s lovely family also embraced Barb and invited her to join their family events, including on one occasion walking through the Mersey Tunnel for charity. 
 
Even after retiring Barbie was keen to keep active and use her brain. She used to volunteer at a local primary school, helping the little ones to read. Of course, all the little ones loved Barbie and she used to buy books for them to take home as she discovered that very few had any books at home.
 She also used to ensure they all had some snacks too, as many were going hungry. Sadly, this was not allowed and poor Barb was told off by the head teacher. She continued to volunteer and gave her love and hugs freely as well as teaching quite a few little ones how to read.
 
Barbie’s passion for reading never left her – she was still reading 6 or 7 books a week until she went into hospital at beginning of November. She shared her passion with Diane and taught her to read at the tender age of about 3. Books were also an important part of the household and when the family moved to Kirkby, one of the first things Barbie did was to take Alan and Diane to the local library.
 
Barb’s favourite time of day was the first hour every morning, no-one was allowed to ring her, as she said it was her time to stay in her PJs, make a black coffee and read her book in her “peaceful hour.”
 
Barb enjoyed several trips a week for many years to shows and saw all the latest films at the cinema. A tribute page in Barb’s name has been set up for donations to establish a cinema room for children staying at Alder Hey hospital. She’d be thrilled to know that the children and their families can enjoy watching their favourite films, with all the associated nursing care needed.
 
Barbie’s greatest love was in fact her husband– Les, who as we have mentioned died only 4 months ago. We cannot underestimate how hard it must have been for Barbie to be living alone after 64 years of marriage.With 2 children, 4 grandchildren, 5 great grandchildren, nieces, nephews, second and third cousins and all the in laws and friends galore, Barbie and Les have left an amazing legacy of friends and family who will miss them both dearly.
 
 It is important to recognise just how much they also loved each other. Some might think that after 64 years, the romance may have dwindled a little, but whilst sorting out the personal items left behind by Barbie, Alan and Diane found some beautiful mementoes that she had kept and which showed the deep love that their parents had for each other.
 There were many cards expressing how much they loved each other – Les saying “Thank You Thank You Thank You I love you more and more each day. “  Three cards that Les had made for Barbie expressing his love and gratitude for her love that he had made when he went on a course to learn how to use a computer. Photos of the two of them together – kissing and holding hands – so many over the years. All of these and so many more of their shared memories were in old shoe boxes and clearly held dear by both Barb and Les.
 
Barb and Les’s  love for each other had seen them through the good and some challenging times, but this quote from a card that Barbie had sent to Les – sums up their love for each other:
 
“To my husband – No-one has a love quite as wonderful as ours. We’re meant to be together, it’s written in the stars. In a different galaxy  in a million worlds and through a thousand lifetimes, we’d still find each other because we belong together…. All my love Barb xxxxx”
 
Afterglow
I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one.
I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done.
I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways,
Of happy times, and laughing times, and bright and sunny days.
I’d like tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun
Of happy memories that I leave, when life is done.
 
Goodnight and God Bless Barbie  - reunited with Les – the love of your life. (Though we all recall Barbie telling Les that when she came back she was marrying Patrick!! 😊😊).
 
There will be one big party going on for you and all your wonderful family and friends – enjoy a drink or two and then Barbie can start the dancing – as you were our very own Dancing Queen.
 
Exit Music –
 Dancing Queen - Abba