I'm here today to share some very sad news. Our dearest colleague, your teacher Gill, passed away in London, England in February 2024. The year before that, Gill had received a diagnosis of brain cancer. She handled the news with strength, with courage, and with peace of mind. She even continued to plan lessons and organize poetry events in her area. In the past year, Gill was supported by friends and family, and in the final stages was provided excellent care by St. Christopher's Hospice. For those of you who may be interested in giving a donation, Gill had advised that this donation could go to St. Christopher's Hospice. We will provide details in the video description below. Gill was not only a teacher, she was also a musician, an actor, and a champion of the arts in her community. For those of you who have followed Gill's lessons over the past nine years, we have created for you a video, not only in honor of her memory, but also so that you can get a sense of her rich life, her many talents, and her unique contributions in so many different fields. My name is Rebecca, and I'm another teacher here at EngVid. On behalf of the entire EngVid family, which includes all of you, I'd just like to say with all my heart, thank you, Gill. We'll miss you. May you rest in peace. A few words about my colleague Gill. Gill was born in 1954 in Derby, an industrial town in the middle of England. She was studious from a young age and had a desire to learn and to broaden her horizons. She loved classical as well as pop music and sang her entire life. But her parents did not approve of pop music at home, and they weren't supportive of her applying to university. They pushed her to secretarial college, but even there she managed to add supplementary courses in French and took singing classes as well. At the age of 20, Gill moved on her own to London to audition for the Royal College of Music. Though she was not admitted, she stayed in the city and several choirs, supporting herself with jobs at a software company and at the Royal Opera House. Through the 1980s, while working full-time, Gill earned degrees in English and art history, completing a PhD with a thesis on Sir John Tenniel, who is known most famously for his Alice in Wonderland illustrations. In 1984, Gill replied to an advertisement looking for a soprano singer to help a musician with some jazz compositions. She auditioned and ended up getting the job, as well as a future husband. Gill's husband, Richard Stoker, was an accomplished composer. She supported Richard's career, and he encouraged and was supportive of her wide-ranging endeavours. The couple liked to start each day by taking turns reading a chapter of a book to each other. Gill and Richard settled in Blackheath in the south-east of London. There, Gill was very involved with the local community and took an active part in local events throughout her life. She was a lecturer at the Open University and also worked in the field of health policy. In 1999, Gill began working at the Mary Evans Picture Library, a unique collection of artwork and images from books, illustration, posters and film. For 25 years, she brought great energy to her work, cataloguing and captioning images at the library. Those she worked with were always astounded at her memory for detail, especially in the fields of music, literature and art. After studying and working in London for many years, Gill decided to retrain as an actor and singer. She performed on stage and in film productions, and it was here that we met, working on a stage project, many years before we started working for EngVid. Gill was also a strong believer in feminism and egalitarianism. After overhearing some colleagues making fun of the 19th century composer and suffragette Dame Ethel Smythe, Gill was inspired to write her own one-person play about the composer's life, where she performed herself across England. One of the ways Gill chose to work in her community was by volunteering as an English teacher. She saw teaching English as a way to meet and help people from other countries who were starting their new lives in England, as well as a way to expose herself to other cultures. Many of Gill's students from this period remained lifelong friends and helped with her care during her illness. English tutoring led Gill to apply to be a teacher for EngVid. This is how you knew Gill, as an online teacher with a clear and approachable style. On top of a solid foundation of grammar and the basics of the language, Gill brought to her lessons some of the personal interests and knowledge I've told you about. History, literature and community. There's one EngVid video you may have seen where she visits a fish and chip shop. Many of you will have watched Gill's lessons on poetry. Gill loved poetry and loved to get people reading. In addition to her poetry videos for EngVid, Gill created an ongoing online project called 'Poems and Pictures' for the Mary Evans Picture Library. There, each week, a new poem would be published, illustrated by an image from the collection. 'Poems and Pictures' now continues in honour of Gill's memory, with over 400 poems for you to have a look at. In 2021, Gill's husband Richard passed away suddenly. In his memory, she established a trust to promote Richard's music through performance and to support musical education. You can find out more about the Richard Stoker Trust at the link provided. Gill had a remarkable life full of poetry, art and music. It was not the life given to her. She worked hard and struggled against her family and society's expectations to enter these worlds. But despite her many accomplishments, Gill remained a humble and private person. She wasn't the type of person who rushed to tell you how much she knew or what she had done. Instead, she listened to people and she worked quietly and diligently at whatever task she had chosen for herself. Gill loved languages. Even in the final weeks of her life, when she was moved to full-time care at Lee Lodge and being taken care of by the staff at St Christopher's Hospice, Gill enjoyed practising Portuguese with one of her nurses. St Christopher's is a charity that provides care to people with serious and terminal illnesses. Gill benefited greatly from their work in her final months and they rely solely on donations, so if you're able to donate, it would be greatly appreciated. The link to donate is in the video description. I mentioned earlier that Gill met her husband Richard when she auditioned as a singer for him. We're going to end now with one of those recordings that Gill and Richard made when they first met, performing James Taylor's song 'Fire and Rain'. Rest in peace, Gill. [Music] Just yesterday morning they told me you were gone Oh honey the things they did put an end to you I woke up this morning I wrote down this song Just can't remember who to send it to I've seen fire I've seen rain I've seen sunny days I thought would never end I've seen lonely times when I could not find one friend But I always thought I'd see you again Look down upon me Jesus won't you help me make a stand I can't make it any other way My body's aching my time is at hand I can't make it through another day I've seen fire I've seen rain I've seen sunny days I thought would never end I've seen lonely times when I could not find one friend But I always thought I'd see you again Then a look in my mind just an easy time My back turned toward the sun Lord knows when the cold wind blows it turns your head around Now there's plenty of time on the telephone line To talk about things to come Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground I've seen fire I've seen rain I've seen sunny days I thought would never end I've seen lonely times when I could not find one friend But I always thought I'd see you again I always thought I'd see you again I always thought I'd see you again