Remembering Karen

Karen Jane Walters was born in Beckenham, Kent on Tuesday 9th May 1961. She was the first daughter for mum Mavis and dad Ronald.
She was one of 3 children with her sister Amanda and brother Steve, and the family soon moved from Beckenham to Cheshunt in Hertfordshire. Karen attended Brooklands Infant and Junior school before completing her formal education at Turnford Secondary School.
She did well academically at school, and excelled at swimming, a sport she loved. She was described as a lively happy teenager who always enjoyed going out having fun and listening to all sorts of music. Later in life, this extended to attending music festivals and concerts with her sister Amanda, attending Glastonbury a few times.
Karen’s great love of animals began as a young teenager when she volunteered to help out at her local vets and her love of animals, especially dogs lasted all her life.
In the early 80s, Karen met the man who was later to become her husband, Tony Hood. They were married in 1983 in Cheshunt. Their first home together was a bungalow in Cheshunt, and Karen was then working as an Animal Technician. During her time in this role at Glaxo, Karen adopted many animals including several kittens . One of the five cats that Karen adopted was Max who reached the grand old age of 21.
There were many dogs in Karen’s life including her first German Shepherds Kyle and Kane and Golden Retriever Mitchell, then two more German Shepherds Bailey and Madison. Karen successfully bred dogs herself and also attended obedience training.
Karen and Tony soon welcomed their three much-loved children into the world: Kerrie in 1986, Matthew in 1988 and finally Lauren in 1990. Karen went to work for Tesco in Cheshunt.
In 1987, Karen’s sister Amanda moved to Southampton and Karen and the children would regularly visit Amanda, until finally Karen and her family moved down to be near the sea and also to be near her much loved sister.
The family moved to Park Gate, Southampton. In the late 90s Karen started working in the Tesco Bursledon, mainly in the Wines & Spirits department.
It was in the early 2000s that Karen and Tony decided to go their separate ways and Karen moved on to live in with her three children in Titchfield Common.
Shortly after she moved, a work colleague at Tesco introduced Dave to Karen. The happy couple began dating and finally moved in together.
Dave loved restoring Mini’s and one of his projects was a mini Clubman 1275GT for Karen. As Karen helped with this, it was off with the typical traditional restoration and on with the wide flared wheel arches, glitter paint and all black interior. Matthew, Karen’s son, managed to take the newly refurbished mini for a sneaky little test drive.
Karen changed her role in Tesco to ‘home shopping’ working alongside her youngest daughter Lauren, that involved hand picking the groceries for delivery.
Later on, Karen transferred to Whiteley Tesco where she worked the remainder of her time. It was there that she formed good lasting friendships, enjoying a coffee outside the store front before starting her shift.
Karen loved her garden, filling it with bright beautiful plants, bird feeders, colourful ornaments and memorial areas for loved ones. She was very knowledgeable with plants, often giving advice to friends and family. Karen was great at DIY, often painting and hanging wallpaper and would happily decorate any of the family’s homes.
Karen loved glitter and would sometimes even add it to wall paint. If she received a birthday or Christmas card that had glitter on it, she would rub the card into her hair!
Now talking of hair, Karen had an amazing head of luscious, thick hair. She was famously known for her many different hairstyles and colours. Most recently, Karen rocked dutch plaits with pink and blue hair which was lovingly styled by her eldest daughter Kerrie on a near weekly basis.

Not only did she love her car, home and garden, Karen was also very fond of adorning various parts of her anatomy with tattoos that even included the dogs. Karen was a much ‘decorated lady’ who had her own unique hippy-bohemian style, including wearing tassels on all her handbags. Karen also enjoyed wearing several pieces of jewellery, including a large amount of shiny and beaded bracelets.
One of Karen’s favourite places to relax and unwind was at the beach. Be it for a stroll along the shoreline or a swim in the sea, this was one of her happy places. She would sometimes take her dogs for a beach walk to Meon Shore where she would walk for hours enjoying the calmness of the sea, often with her children or sister. It’s because of her love for the beach and the sea, that Karen is now memorialised by her family as a mermaid.
Karen loved to play music very loudly in her car (which was covered in flowers and Bluey stickers) with the windows down and the wind blowing in her hair.
Donna, a very dear friend of Karen, moved to Carmarthen in South Wales which led to Karen going to visit, accompanied by her many dogs. Karen & Donna remained the very closest of friends often talking on the phone for hours.
Karen got on well with Dave’s daughters Mandy and Emma. Mandy had two of Karen’s pups and brought one of the pups back to see Karen before she passed.
Karen had a very close and special relationship with her grandchildren: Lucie born in 2016, Matthew Junior in 2016, Layla-Jean in 2017, Morgan in 2018, James in 2018, Matilda in 2020 and finally Max in 2022. Karen was known as Nonna and Dave was Grampy Dave. The very last tattoo for our much loved Karen was of 7 elephants in a line representing each of the grandchildren. These have also been found to represent happiness, wisdom, prudence, royal dignity, invincible power, longevity and intelligence.
Karen was a devoted mother and grandmother. Spending a lot of time making precious memories whilst looking after her grandchildren, so that her own children could go to work. She was a devoted daughter to Mavis, regularly taking her shopping and to appointments when she was no longer able to drive herself.
Only Karen would decide to learn how to ride a motorbike at the age of 61, and sadly her motorcycle test would prove to be life changing when she crashed, badly damaging her right leg, knee and ankle.
It was in September 2023 that Karen received a diagnosis of lung cancer which was too far advanced to treat.
After a short stay at Southampton General Hospital, Karen was discharged home and Dave became his darling Karen’s carer. He was very well supported by a District Nurses team and finally by the wonderful Rowans Hospice at Home.
Karen passed away peacefully at home fulfilling her last wish, on Friday 5th January with Dave, Kerrie, Lauren, Matthew, Amanda, Yazmin, Lilia and Rosa by her side.
Karen was selfless, very thoughtful, caring and loving. She always put others before herself and nothing was ever too much trouble for this loveliest of ladies. She was always full of joy and love for all her family and her kind, generous heart touched all those who knew her. She lived all her full life as a true free spirit.
Karen will be greatly missed and forever remembered by all, her loving family, her many friends and all those who knew her.