AYES AND ROS AMEWADAH-RIVERS 

Ayes (pronounced eyes) and Ros have been married for thirty years, and have lived next door to me for the last seventeen of them. It all began on a wonderful holiday in Greece, with a bended knee proposal in a romantic setting and a promise from Ayes that he would do all the cooking - which he still does. His parents came from Ghana to study in London, where Ayes was born. They went back to Ghana when Ayes was six, but at twelve he was sent back to the UK to be fostered by a couple named Rivers, hence the added name. They were exceptional people with two children of their own: he has always felt he had two sets of parents.

After graduating in industrial engineering and management he set up a consultancy business, helping organisations all over the world develop their marketing activities. Ros was also born in London; her parents had moved here soon after marrying. She graduated at LSE and worked for eight years at Esso, but then retrained as a teacher and taught at Worth Abbey and Hurstpierpoint. Now she has retrained again as a psychotherapist/counsellor, working from home and in Brighton.

They have three children: Sebastian, who went to Bede’s School and now works locally in finance. No. 2 is the multi-talented Francesca: Head Girl at Roedean, she graduated in Music from Oxford, plays several instruments, now works in theatre and music production in London, and recently won the Evening Standard Most Promising Musician award. She teaches piano to children. In her spare time she takes on little side activities like going on tour with the National Youth Theatre playing the title role in Shakespeare’s Othello. The youngest, Nathaniel, was a pupil at Hurstpierpoint and a gap teacher there - now studying engineering at university. Both boys are keen footballers: they are working through their coaching qualifications while proudly coaching youngsters at the Uckfield Grasshoppers Club.

The family enjoy holidaying together – when they can. In Scotland Sebastian spoke for them all: “If only it was a few degrees warmer no-one would need to leave the UK for sun and scenery”. At Loch Lomond it was 26 degrees and the locals proudly declared it was the hottest day since 1914 – “and not a shower in sight!” Nathaniel added “Long may it continue so we can go back again”.

Ayes and Ros are wonderful neighbours. They did all my shopping for me when I was house-bound. Anne enjoyed babysitting for them when the children were young, and we soon became close. After all, we share the same sewerage system, and you can’t get much closer than that.

Dick Glynne-Jones