“Sometimes we couldn’t walk down the street without someone shouting at us. They used to say ‘go back to your own country’.”
Jamie Field, Jewish Care’s East London locality manager, said: "Millie really endeared herself to everyone she met but particularly those of us who were lucky enough to spend every day with her.
"She didn’t have an easy life but you wouldn’t know it speaking to her. She loved being at the centre and everyone genuinely loved her. She will be sorely missed by all of us - but none more so than Beattie [Orwell]. Beattie and Millie were childhood friends who were reunited at the centre and were inseparable ever since."
At the funeral at Marlow Road Cemetery in East Ham, Sandra Valentine Boyd spoke of how much her aunt had enjoyed attending the Stepney centre.
“Millie’s days were spent gossiping, making plans and putting the world to rights. Her evenings were spent planning her outfits for the following day. She would often call me, saying ‘will the pink sweater go with the grey trousers, or did I wear that a few days ago?’ Because, of course, she couldn’t wear the same outfit twice in one week."
