Someone who was loving, affectionate, passionate, demonstrative, empathetic, giving, trusting, open minded, funny, firm, assertive if necessary, intelligent, articulate, a strong sense of right and wrong, down to earth. She was someone who people would always talk to if she approached them in the street. Someone who people would turn to if they had a problem, especially an emotional problem.

Rita was born in February of 1955 to Enos and Edith Wortley. She had a conventional childhood making some long-term friends in school. Chief amongst these friends, from the age of four, was Denise. Rita left school as soon as she could to make use of the training in typing her family had arranged. By the age of 18, she was in charge of the large typing pool at the GPO in Blackburn.

Rita left her home in Blackburn in the industrialised north of England and aged only 19 bravely moved down to the county of Devon in the more rural South West to start a new life on her own. She had jobs on production lines in small specialised companies but also knew what it was to be with virtually no money. She fitted in with what might be called the local hippy culture in the area until disturbed by a weekend visit from her future husband Pete. They fell in love and more weekend visits took place at her flat in the seaside village of Lyme Regis. She moved back to Blackburn for a while until she married Pete in 1979 in St. Silas church, Blackburn and then moved to the town of Rugby in the South Midlands.

Her first job after she was married was initially as a receptionist for a small company which produced those mailshots we all love to hate. Delivery drivers who thought they could do what they pleased with their lorries were soon made aware of the error of their ways by Rita. As usual receptionists were given other tasks to fill in their time and eventually Rita had taken on so many of these tasks that another receptionist was found (who became her firm friend) whilst Rita became the administrative centre for the company. Everything came via Rita's desk. She managed the relationships with the outworkers, factory staff, office staff and executives with the right mixture of affability, empathy and assertiveness and was much missed when she finally left.

In August 1984 the first of her children, Duncan, was born in Rugby. The second, Neil, was born in November 1986 and 6 weeks later the family moved to Abingdon in Oxfordshire, two days before Christmas.  Rita was a very good mother who adored her children but was firm, did not often spoil them and imbued them with her own values.

When the children were old enough Rita gained employment in an estate agency, again providing strong administrative support, and even emotional support, to each branch she worked in. She acquired the title of "earth mother" from one of the young executives; a very apt description.

Rita then decided to combine looking after Duncan and Neil with childminding for other families. This worked very well as you might expect with Rita and the parents became friends.

All this experience gave Rita the self confidence to pursue the further education she had missed and she enrolled for a degree course in Psychology and Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University. This was a completely new and very challenging experience which Rita dealt with by sheer hard work and dedication.

During some project work for this degree Rita had to verify a questionnaire she had designed by testing it on the general public at a park and ride car park. You know how you try to avoid the woman with the clipboard; well everyone Rita approached stopped and answered her questionnaire. A classic example of the connection Rita always made with people.

After a lot of dedication and hard work Rita took her degree with justifiable pride.

She then worked for the NHS in the area of Mental Health for some time.

On Rita's first visit to Malta in the 1980's she fell in love with the country almost from stepping off the plane. A few days in Sliema followed by over a week in a farmhouse on the outskirts of Sannat, Gozo, confirmed her feelings. Subsequent visits even many years later confirmed Rita's attachment to Malta and eventually she arranged the purchase of the flat in Qawra. With the break up of her marriage Rita's clear intention of moving to Malta eventually could be finally carried out. Rita's love of Malta is so clearly expressed in her poem "My Malta".

Rita's family was always very important to her and she maintained a very close relationship with her mother Edith and father Enos until their passing away, and of course with her children Duncan, and his partner Andy, and with Neil (now known as Jess). Rita's cats were also part of the family starting with Pebbles in Abingdon who then gave rise to Minnie and Gizzy in Malta. They all gave her much pleasure and she loved them to bits, as she would say. Minnie and Gizzy were adopted by their vet on Rita's passing. Pebbles urn was laid to rest with her, as per her wishes.

Rita loved music of all sorts and even went to some heavy rock concerts with her then husband Pete. Rita had perfect pitch, a good voice and could play piano by ear but unfortunately never pursued her musical ability; although a piano accompanied her from Blackburn all the way to Malta. Give Rita a pair of headphones and one could easily find out her quality as she could not resist singing along to many songs not realising everyone was listening.

By the time Rita moved to Malta she had started to suffer from multiple health issues including Fibromyalgia, Primary Biliary Cirrhosis and Pulmonary Fibrosis. Rita found the climate of Malta was just what she needed to help her symptoms. More recently the Pulmonary Fibrosis disease took a stronger hold leaving Rita with great difficulty in getting around and eventually necessitating the continual use of oxygen. Although these problems could get Rita down on occasions she was able to rise above them and could be her cheerful practical self.