Remembering Marjory Foyle

My first recollection of Marjory is in the mid 1950s when she came home from Nepal on leave when she was working as a gynecologist. We met her at the Waterloo Boat Train Platform and I was struck by how worldly and refreshing she seemed. London at the time was somewhat drab and still being cleared up after World War 2. Marjory seemed literally like a breath of very fresh air. I also became aware of her religious beliefs. She stayed with us and I noticed we temporarily said grace before meals and there was no wine or commercial activity of any type on Sundays.

Several years later when she was back in Nepal we talked by phone at Christmas. The phone call was a geography lesson in itself. The London Overseas Operator connected the call to Paris who then connected the call to Rome, etc. Connecting the call took longer than the actual call which was only three minutes.

In the late 60s and early 70s, I saw much more of Marjory as she retrained for several years as a psychiatrist in Dundee. As a family we would periodically get together. Other people will cover her subsequent service at Nur Manzil in India much better than I can.

She moved back to London permanently in the 90s and we began to see her on a regular basis both in London, St Petersburg Florida and subsequently Boulder, Colorado.

After Vicky died in 2003, I accompanied Marjory on several Caribbean cruises and an especially memorable one from Thailand to Singapore. I got to know her very well and in a different way over a period of a few years. She had a unique ability to see the best in everyone but was also very pragmatic about their weaknesses. I was reminded by her to not necessarily take things at face value and she did not spare me from constructive criticism (given with love) which was much appreciated.

She acted as a generous hostess to both my wife Sandra and myself on numerous occasions in London and also to our daughters, Amanda and Jen, when they visited London. The last time we were all together was when she visited us in Boulder in 2013.

After that her ability to travel declined but we continued to visit her in London on almost an annual basis until the pandemic started in 2020. We have kept in touch thanks to Skype and I am grateful to both Bob and Sue Dunkley and also Elrose Hunter who continue to lovingly watch over her as well as the staff of David’s House who care for her so well in these extremely challenging times. Some of the staff are from Nepal and initially she was able to talk converse with them in Nepali.