Dot left school at the age of 16 and started working for Pearl Assurance in Sutton. She’d actually tried to get a job before then in Woolworths but was turned down when they discovered she’d lied about her age, telling them she was fifteen and a half when in fact, she was fifteen and three quarters! Another example of her rebellious ways. As Laura says, her main motivation was the pick ’n mix anyway, so when Dot eventually got various Saturday jobs at the local cafe, the deli counter at Tescos and later on in Boots, she was able to bowl into Woolworths and buy herself some sweets anyway.

After having Tracy and Paul, Dot spent her day time hours with them. But from six to ten o clock each night, she would spend her evenings at Barclays Bank checking cheque books with Judy. Eventually, she got a full-time job at Dee Corporation as it was known then where she made a close group of friends, the Gateway Girls as they were called: Sally and the ‘two Sues’, who continued to meet up after the company dissolved. As Sue Goldburn recalls, during their dinners, they enjoyed putting the world to rights, sharing photos of children and grandchildren. Dot’s next job was as an account clerk at luxury lighting company, Franklite. She spent 26 years at the company and made many more friends there too, a testament to how sociable Dot was.