THE family of an “unassuming and kind” grandmother have paid tribute to her and spoken of the “emotional ordeal” of repatriation.

Ann Richardson died in Cape Town, South Africa, having been in the country for a family wedding.

She fractured her hip on December 28, 2019, after falling on a single step and had surgery the following day at Vergelegen Medicentre.

The Walkford resident initially seemed to recover well, however, she passed away on January 2, with the coroner recording her death as due to pneumonia as a consequence of the accident.

It took her family almost a month to repatriate her body, with a post mortem carried out in South Africa and England.

She finally returned to England on January 25 and her body was released on February 4, at which point funeral planning could begin.

Son David said the repatriation process was “quite traumatic” and took longer than the family expected.

“It took nearly a month to get her body back,” he said. “It was quite difficult. There wasn’t huge amounts of support to help us know where we were going next. It was waiting on people and then them going ‘actually, we need this’.

“After all of that, unfortunately the body was in a state that wasn’t fit to be seen. For me that was quite upsetting because I had not actually been there when she had the accident.

“When she came back to the UK, I was quite upset that I wasn’t able to view her.

“The time it took just dragged out the start of our grieving.”

His advice to other families put in a similar situation is that it will take longer than they expect and it is quite common that bodies are not suitable for viewing when they travel from far away.

Aunty Ann, as she was known by many, was born in February 1945 in Surrey, the oldest of five children.

She married Graham ‘Rich’ Richardson in October 1964 and they had six children. Sadly, her middle son was lost to cancer aged just 19.

The family lived in Zimbabwe in southern Africa for 32 years, with Ann working as a book-keeper and mother.

On their return to England, Ann worked at G&T’s in Highcliffe from 2001 until its close, becoming part of the “family” there.

She became a loved member of the Highcliffe community, which became more important to her after her husband’s death in 2003 to Motor Neurone Disease.

She enjoyed gin and tonics, reading, sudoku and the pub quiz. She is survived by her five children, daughter-in-law, son-in-law and nine grandchildren.

In a tribute to Ann, who died aged 74, her family said she was “unassuming and kind, but she had this inner undisputed strength that carried her through life”.

Her children added: “Mum had this amazing fragility, almost like a boat on a stormy sea, but she survived so much. She is so sorely missed.”