Richenda Jane Corcos (née Lee, YG 1961)
03 September 2024
Old Scholars will be saddened to hear of the death of Richenda Jane Corcos (née Lee, YG 1961). Richenda was born on 27th December 1943 in Dulwich Hospital, London. She died on 9th April 2024 in Painswick, Gloucestershire. The following obituary was written by her brother, Christopher Lee (YG 1959)."'Chen', as she was invariably known, lived a full and interesting life. Shortly after being born, according to the baby book written by our mother, she was taken to the country to escape the V1 doodlebugs and later the V2 rockets. Apparently, one landed quite close to our house in Dulwich, which was the final decider. First, she attended Dulwich Hamlet School in Southeast London and then went on to the local secondary school. Our father, who, at the time, was fast becoming a “weighty friend” was already finding it rather hard to meet my £202 annual school fee. Thus, he was initially unable to send both of us to The Friends’ School simultaneously. By the time I left, and my brother Andrew (YG 1962) had started at Friends’ School (and after some arm-twisting from my ahead-of-her-time and emancipated stepmother) our father had had received sufficient promotion and increases in salary to send both Chen and Andy at the same time. She really enjoyed her time at Saffron Walden and made some enduring and life-long friends. The philosophies and attitudes that she acquired at school lasted for her whole life. She was really sad to learn of the demise of the school.After school she went to Pitman’s Secretarial College in the City of London where she became an accomplished stenographer. So good in fact that she rapidly became a personal assistant; eventually working in that capacity for the Office of the Serjeant at Arms in the House of Commons. This arose after standing-in as a ‘temp’ where they quickly decided that they liked her so much that she was enrolled onto the permanent staff. There were many hilarious stories that she recounted from the shenanigans that went on therein. When much younger, she and my brother Andy went to live and work in Kibbutz Dvir which is located in the northern Negev desert of Israel near the city of Be’er Sheva. It was here, whilst holidaying for a few days in Eilat, that she met her husband-to-be, Claude, who was living under an upturned boat on the Red Sea beach! Claude was Moroccan and had gone to Israel as a young Jew and found himself reluctantly caught-up in one of the many Arab Israeli conflicts. They came back to England and their marriage was solemnised in the manner of Friends at Jordan’s Quaker Meeting House in Penn. Chen and Claude had two children, Monette and Benjamin. Much of their married life was spent lovingly and sensitively renovating old farmhouses in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. They lived in them whilst working on them, eventually selling them at a profit which allowed them to buy bigger and better projects. This enabled them to move up the housing ladder. It was hard work, and it took a toll on their marriage. Sadly, the time came after many years for an amicable separation.Chen returned to London where she reacquainted herself with an old family friend with whom she moved in. He too was an Israeli, and they enjoyed many happy years together. It was at this period in her life that she worked in the Houses of Parliament. A few years ago, whilst holidaying in Antigua, Davide asked Chen to marry him. They did it right there and then. Such a surprise it was to her, that she had to go and buy some suitable clothes and shoes!Chen developed a passion for alternative medicine and Yoga. She studied Reiki and became an advanced registered practitioner. She went to South America to purchase a Chacrys crystal bed from a famous Brazilian practitioner, who interviewed her extensively before agreeing to the sale. Apparently, in the right hands, the energy from the Vogel crystals creates harmony within all chakras. She ran Yoga classes in South London, and she did healing sessions on a rewarding number of clients from her house in which she had a dedicated room. She talked enthusiastically and knowledgeably about chakras – much to the mystification of her allopathically trained brother, me.Unfortunately, Chen appears to have inherited the BRCA gene from our mother which inevitably led to breast cancer. This cruel inheritance affected each generation. She valiantly stuck to her alternative principles and eschewed allopathic medicine, refusing all conventional help. After an heroic battle, she eventually succumbed surrounded by her loving and extended family. Her final mêlée was inspirational, even if a bit frustrating and possibly avoidable. Her green funeral at Westmill Woodland Burial Ground was the ‘nicest’ funeral I’ve ever been to. What a lovely person she was."