Published On:Monday, 20 October 2014
Posted by Celebrate Life Style information Blog
Tributes paid to Olga Kenyon - grandmother, author, Buddhist, campaigner and 'lover of life' who died after being hit by van
77-year-old was an active helper at Manchester's museums and art galleries and a leading member of the city's Amnesty International groupTributes have been paid to an acclaimed author and Buddhist who died after being hit by a van in Hulme.
Olga Kenyon, 77, was crossing Chester Road when she was struck by the vehicle on September 26.
The mum-of-three and grandmother-of-seven was taken to hospital but died of her injuries later that day.
Her family said she was a ‘passionate campaigner and generous donator for woman’s rights.’
Cambridge graduate Olga has a rich career involving teaching, lecturing and writing and retired in the early 90s due to ill health. She was a well respected author of women’s writing and had eight books published. She moved to Manchester 20 years ago from Todmorden.
A lover of literature and the arts Olga was a regular theatre goer and an active helper at the Manchester and Whitworth Art Galleries and the Manchester Museum.
Author PD James wrote the foreword to Olga’s most acclaimed book 800 Years of Women’s Letters.
It read: “Olga Kenyon has performed a service to all who are interested not only in the written word, but in the changing lives of women”.
As a keen poet she won the North West Libraries poetry award last year and her poem To the Edge, about Alderley Edge, was displayed on trams.
She has been an active member of Manchester’s Amnesty International and was ordained at the Manchester Buddhist Centre in 2005. Olgas was given the name Aryamati meaning ‘she whose mind is noble’ and ran a weekly mediation group and poetry group at the centre in the Northern Quarter.
She was fluent in five languages and suffered from osteoporosis which caused crippling back pain.
Her family added: “Rather than enjoying a quiet retirement as a lover of life Olga threw herself into everything the city has to offer.
“In recent years she had operations to replace both hips. Rather than be restricted to a wheelchair she slowly built up her strength and continued walking with the aid of a stick. Only the weekend before her death Olga helped organise the Climate Change protest through Manchester and despite her health issues insisted on marching at the front.” -ManchestereveningNews.
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