Her parents, Motice Israel Stoops (Stupjack) and Annie Davis (Davidovich), were born in the Russian Empire did not speak or write fluently in English.
Lottie as the eldest of 5 children was the first child to be educated in England. She did well at school and was later sent to College when she was 16 years to learn accounts/clerical skills. Her first job was at the Liverpool Corn Exchange and she later began to help her father in business. Writing and speaking good English, she became the go between the Stoops family and the outside World.
She was a smart dresser, with blond hair and blue eyes and her second cousin Alex who was 6 years older newly arrived from Swansea fell in love with her. Mottice did not agree that that they could be married for a while and that took place only on 3rd. July, 1938. The newly married couple moved to Morriston where Lottie helped in the family cinema and later in the running of her husband's various shops. Her life was very difficult during the War as Alex was called up in 1939 and was not released until 1945. In fact, her brother Eric came to Morriston to help her with her new baby Jennifer who was born in 1941.Throughout her life, Lottie was very active in voluntary work for Israel and in the general and local Jewish community where she held many senior positions both in Morriston and later in Swansea where they had moved after the War . She held senior positions, as explained above, in WIZO, Magen David Adom, Swansea Synagogue Guild and was Vice President of the Morriston British Legion.
She was very family conscious always taking care of her immediate & extended family in Swansea and Liverpool. In 1960, together with Alex, she organized and catered a large barmitzvah for her son Maurice at the Synagogue followed by a party for 300 people at the Embassy Ballroom, Swansea. After her father had died in 1943, she became the matriarch of the Stoops family who were mostly based in Liverpool. A highly principled woman, she strongly upheld Jewish religious values setting standards in the home and at the local synagogue. Even though Alex had to work on shabbat, she made sure that her son Maurice attended weekly shabbat services at the local synagogue in Swansea. She came from an orthodox home in Liverpool and this led to some conflicts especially with her daughter Jennifer in later life.
In1981 Lottie and Alex moved to Bournemouth, where they were very happy to be part of a large Jewish community. However, her cancer which had remained dormant for several years sadly became more active and her daughter nursed her over several difficult months until she died in May,1987.
After Lottie died, Alex quickly moved to a small flat near the city centre and the local synagogue. There he continued to entertain his friends and family with stories of the past, finally dying one day after moving into the Hannah Levy Jewish Old age home in 2001. Both Alex and Lottie are buried in Kinson cemetery Bournemouth Source: Maurice Hyman (Haifa ,Israel) 241026 mail: mhyman@012.net.il
