Barby's tribute to Dorothy Willmot

TRIBUTE was paid this week by animal sanctuary founder Barby Keel to the benefactor who enabled her to buy the sanctuary's paddock.

Dorothy Willmot, known to many simply as "The Butterfly Lady" because of her love of nature, died on October 17 aged 93.

Barby said of Dorothy's funeral at Bexhill Cemetery last Thursday: "It was uncanny.

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There was this lovely bunch of roses and a bee came and settled on it and then a butterfly. It was an absolutely magnificent moment. It couldn't believe that a butterfly would appear like that when the day was so terribly cold.

"Dorothy was one of the first people I met when I came here. I mentioned to her that I was going to start an animal sanctuary.

"She was a very outspoken lady. She said 'Lots of people say they are going to open sanctuaries and never go through with it!'

"Years later she said to me 'I was wrong. You've stuck with your guns.'

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"Dorothy was a staunch supporter of the sanctuary. She helped me get what I called my Dream Field. We were trying to get the field next door to the sanctuary. Dorothy gave me 10,000 for the deposit on it.

"We called it Dorothy's Dream Field in honour of the gift.

"When she became house-bound we used to pick her up and drive her to the top of the field in the car so she could see the animals without getting out.

"She was a poet and she was a very good artist. Her home was full of her pictures.

"She was always writing to the Observer about the sanctuary at one time.

"She was a very dear supporter and we shall miss her greatly."

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