Widespread sadness has been expressed following the death of Mrs. Violet Louisa Little (nee Creighton) who was born on February 26, 1942.

Violet was the first daughter to parents John Joseph “Jack” Creighton and Margaret Olive “Maggie” Creighton (nee Egerton) at Derryvore, Knockaraven, Derrylin.

In the following years, siblings Olive and Billy were born, and all grew up on the family farm at Derryvore. Violet attended Teemore school and went on to the Technical School Enniskillen to study Secretarial and Commerce and also obtained a teaching qualification in 1960.

On leaving full time education, Violet’s first job was in a secretarial role at Dickies shop in Church Street, Enniskillen. She then went on to become school secretary at Kesh Intermediate Secondary School where she also taught secretarial skills on a part-time basis to pupils and spent each working week lodging in Kesh returning home on the bus for the weekend.

She became involved with Fermanagh Young Unionist Association and served as secretary during the 1960s. During this time, she met her husband to be, George Little, at a dance in a country hall often travelling to these events on her bicycle on either side of the border.

Violet married George Little at Holy Trinity Church, Crom, on August 19, 1967 with the reception at the Imperial Hotel, Enniskillen and honeymoon in Killarney and set up home at Killee, Lisbellaw.

In 1970, daughter, Hazel, was born but due to complications in pregnancy, Violet was advised not to have any other children. As well as bringing up her daughter, she helped to look after the family farm and enjoyed feeding and looking after all the animals.

In the mid-1970s, Violet took up employment with John McMahon Electrical Shop in Church Street, Enniskillen in a secretarial capacity. The business was later bought over by Jimmy Byrne and relocated to Westville, Tempo Road, under the name Concord. In the 1980s, the business closed but still worked on a casual basis for Modern Tyres.

In her spare time, she enjoyed knitting, sewing, baking and gardening. She exhibited her creations and produce at Fermanagh County Show for many years and won numerous prizes of which she was very proud. Single handedly she dug and planted a vegetable garden for many years and enjoyed being able to produce a variety of home-grown food for the table. Violet also enjoyed travelling within Ireland and also to Scotland and England with family and friends to explore historic buildings and the varying landscapes of the countrysides she visited.

In 1992 Violet suffered her first stroke at 50 due to undiagnosed high blood pressure for over 20 years, despite leading a healthy and active lifestyle walking and cycling everywhere as she never learned to drive. She recovered well and got back to most of her everyday activities but suffered a further stroke in 2002. However, when the weakness occurred, she slipped onto the floor and cracked her hip. Unfortunately, this injury was missed on her admission to hospital and was not discovered for a month when she became seriously ill and had developed septicaemia.

Violet defied the medical experts and fought off the infection which was expected to be fatal. After 13 months in hospital, she eventually got home but was then confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

Violet never complained about her disability and had a very positive attitude , her motto in life was “sure what do you do”, - and she tried everything she possibly could do to remain active in her mind if not her body, reading, doing word puzzles and watching quiz programmes on TV and was a wealth of knowledge. She also enjoyed watching the birds and wild animals from the window of her home and always loved companionship from her many pets over the years.

In December 2020, Violet became unwell and was admitted to hospital following a positive Covid-19 test and was in the next room to her husband George who sadly passed away on the December 16, 2020. She bravely fought despite her grief but could not win this battle. She passed away peacefully in her sleep on January 17, 2021.

Her funeral was conducted by the Rev. Maurice Armstrong on January 19, 2021 and she was laid to rest at Tempo Parish Church along side her husband.

She is survived by her daughter Hazel, grandchildren Matthew, Rebecca and Emily, brother Billy and nephews and nieces. She was predeceased by her sister Olive in 2019.

Funeral arrangements were carried out by Marcus Madill/S.R Elliot & Sons.