Everything starts at home

Sue Ryder was born in 1923. In Scarcroft, Yorkshire, her affluent family house neighboured slums, which she described as awful in her biography. Sue, her siblings and poor children from the neighbourhood played together in the beautiful garden of Sue’s house, where everyone was served with sandwiches and sweets. Since she was a child, Sue saw poverty and voluntary work of her parents and their friends for the sick and poor at the same time. The attitude of her parents, particularly mother, had a great impact on Sue Ryder’s whole life. She inherited “hot and true interest in people, their desires and needs” from her mother.

Sue accompanied her mother in voluntary work for those in need and she also worked at the family farm: in the dairy and carpenter’s shop. She was picking blackberries, riding a horse, playing instruments and singing. She loved dancing. She was happy and, like her loved ones, on the move and at work all the time in order to take care of others from a sense of community. That gave her life meaning and stopped boredom. Such memories accompanied Sue Ryder in her adult life.