TRIBUTES have been paid to a kind and popular 83-year-old from Poole who died in a collision last week on a busy Poole road.

Mary Wallwork, who lived at Wyvern Close, was described as a sociable resident, who had got to know her neighbours at Ralph Jessop Court sheltered accommodation during the year or so that she had lived there.

Her friends and fellow residents spoke of their grief on Thursday after learning that Mary had been involved in a collision with a car at 7.45pm on Wednesday, February 19, on Herbert Avenue.

Cecelia Rutledge, 80, said: “She was a very independent person with a dry sense of humour but very friendly, and she loved Scrabble and playing bingo.

She added: “She used to come to a lunch club with me every Friday, and I remember that she used to walk quite slowly.

“I know she had a nice family because she sometimes spoke about her pride for her daughter and grandchildren.”

Stephen England, pictured left, 61, who lived in the flat opposite Mary said: “I was talking to her daughter on Sunday, who told me that her mother called her to say that she didn’t need a lift home from wherever she’d been, as someone else was able to drive her home.

“She was dropped in the Tesco car park and then went round to the fish and chip shop to get her tea, before she crossed the road, and that is when it happened.”

Margaret Broome, 93, said that residents held a two-minute silence during their game of bingo on Tuesday to remember Mary because she was so popular.

“She came along to anything that our Age Concern group did and she was sociable, friendly and very popular,” she said.

“She didn’t have a walking frame, just a stick to get across the road.

“I feel that sometimes the lights just don’t seem to give you long enough to cross the road. In the 21 years that I have lived here, this is the only time that I have heard of this happening to somebody who lives here and I hope that it never happens again.”