Obituary
Margaret Brydie Ford, age 88, passed away peacefully on November 27 in Holly Hill, Florida. Brydie is survived by her husband of 65 years, Charles Richard Ford, daughter Heather Herd of Santa Fe, NM, and son Bob Ford of Fayetteville, AR, who were with her at her bedside; her nieces Cathy Bettle, Patricia Mauro and Mimi Vreeland and their families; and in the United Kingdom her niece Julie Palmer and her family, and her nephew Christopher Heaps.
Brydie was born on November 29, 1933, in Hove, on the south coast of England. In wartime Britain, she lived much of her girlhood away from home in boarding schools and graduated from the Claremont School. She went on to receive her degree from the Guildhall School of Music in London, where she studied piano and piano pedagogy. She also received a Certificate in Music from the Royal Academy of Music. She taught for a brief period in London before marrying Charles Ford, a sergeant in the US Air Force stationed near Edinburgh, Scotland, from where they returned to America. She taught piano, served as a church organist and soloist, and for many years was on the faculty of the Wilson School in Mountain Lakes, NJ, where she taught French and music. She and her husband retired to Florida in 2000.
A deeply spiritual woman, in recent years Brydie attended Unity of Daytona, where she sang in and composed music for the choir. A voracious, lifelong reader and journal writer, she took up painting in retirement, and her prolific work includes seascapes and landscapes, wildlife, and her beloved lighthouses.
Brydie’s family and friends remember her as a kind, generous-spirited woman, who consistently sought the good in people, adored animals, loved a funny story, took delight in the simplest pleasures, and whose joy-filled smile could fill a room.
The family is deeply grateful to the many Daytona-area doctors and nurses who cared for her, and especially her cherished friends at Unity of Daytona and Bishops Glen in Holly Hill.
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