Hundreds of mourners paid tribute to Ethel Kingston who was buried in Cleenish Parish Church on Sunday. Mrs. Kingston, along with her husband Trevor were well known faces in the Enniskillen business community, owning Home Field and Stream in the town centre.

Mrs. Kinston has been described by family members as a "devoted mother" for whom "family unity was of the immense importance".

"Ethel's grandchildren were incredibly special to her. Matthew, Isaac and Susanna, Annabelle and Jessica, Hannah and Kingston, and little Ida, were all her treasures. She loved them all deeply and delighted to see them in the family home, especially on big occasions such as Christmas. Her generosity and love for them will always be remembered," they said.

Last summer Mrs. Kingston suffered a brain haemorrhage, and although she recovered it was with immense shock to all her family and friends when she suffered a second haemorrhage on Thursday January 10 and died instantly.

"We are most grateful to all who have expressed sympathy and offered willing assistance since Ethel's passing," a family member explained.

Mrs. Kingston and her husband were described as "childhood sweethearts" having first met when they were 12 years old. They were married in the Methodist Church in Swanlinbar, where Mrs. Kingston was born and raised.

"Ethel regularly spoke of her very happy childhood, with loving parents, featuring the kinds of jobs that all children of farmers undertook. She often recounted the wonderful community spirit that she remembered of her childhood years, and how neighbourly people were towards one another," her family commented.

She trained as a nurse in the Royal Victoria Hospital and worked both there and in Purdysburn Hospital as a staff nurse before returning to Fermanagh to start life and a family with her husband.

The couple had four children, Malcolm, Rodney, Stephanie and Craig and although Mrs. Kingston was "fully involved in the business with Trevor, her children were always her priority, making sure that she was able to deliver to and collect them after school," a family member said.

Church life and her Christian faith were also very important to Mrs. Kingston, who was a Sunday school teacher and served as a Sunday school superintendent for many years in Cleenish Parish while also singing in the Church Choir. Indeed Mrs. Kingston was a part of the very fabric of the community with the Cleenish Centre, in Bellanaleck becoming a significant feature of her life, where she volunteered and undertook and was a welcoming and helpful face for those using the centre.

Mrs. Kingston had eight grandchildren with a family member describing them as "her treasures":

"Ethel's grandchildren were incredibly special to her. Matthew, Isaac and Susanna, Annabelle and Jessica, Hannah and Kingston, and little Ida, were all her treasures. She loved them all deeply and delighted to see them in the family home, especially on big occasions such as Christmas. Her generosity and love for them will always be remembered."

She and her husband shared 44 years of marriage together and were close to inseparable according to friends and family:

"Whether in the shop, visiting family, on the boat, at the Cleenish Centre, whatever they did, they did so together. Trevor will miss Ethel terribly, but he can be assured of the love and support of his family, as well as the comfort and strength that he will gain through his Christian faith."

Mrs. Kingston's funeral took place on Sunday January 10 in Cleenish Parish Church with the funeral carried out by W.T Morrison Funeral Directors.