The force of nature that was Moira Prakash was extinguished on the 4th May 2024. She was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, in the middle of WW2 to Moira MacDiarmid who named her child Elizabeth Campbell Macdiarmid. The infant was quickly adopted by Edith and Captain Robert L. Smith of Sunderland and renamed to honor her mother. Moira was very talented on a number of fronts including ballet, showing champion sheep and was also a keen equestrian.
Her father told her he would buy the horse, all she had to do was pay for its upkeep. Needless to say that dream died at the age of 12. Her ballet career went further and she was invited to audition for the Royal Ballet School but again her father being the practical seafaring man argued against that too. Instead she would channel her considerable energies into becoming a PE teacher, graduating from I.M. Marsh in Liverpool.
Before Moira went to college she met Vijai Prakash who was studying at Durham University Moira’s parents invited the handsome, lonely Indian to Sunday lunches not bargaining for the romance that blossomed under their noses. The romance flourished even after they both graduated from their respective colleges and after Vijai returned to India. He flew back to the UK to marry Moira and after their daughter Seema was born Moira joined Vijai in Kumardubi India. Moira did not fit in with the bridge playing, gin swilling expat wives. Far from Vijai’s family who were in Jaipur, Moira was lonely and not terribly fulfilled even though she managed the “expat club” and the home. Eventually, pregnant with their second child, Moira left for Sunderland where Simon was born. When Vijai found an engineering position in Scotland the family moved there and that was where Sonia their third child was born.
Moira was persuaded to go back to PE teaching in the local primary school in Larbert and because she was a “specialist” was soon asked to take her skills on the road to all the local primary schools which did not have a PE teacher in Stirlingshire (Central Region) This role expanded and she became responsible for writing and implementing the entire PE curriculum in Central Region with Rory, the Border Terror (no spelling mistake) as her sidekick and the two of them visited all the schools in the area in her trusty Mini. Life was good in Scotland so when Storage Tek tried to recruit Vijai, Moira was unconvinced about the merits of leaving her flourishing career, her aging parents and uprooting the children. However, the company wooed her with a visit to sunny, beautiful Boulder and so a new life beckoned the year she turned 40.
At first, Colorado felt like home with lots of walks and picnics in the rain at Rocky Mountain National Park. In the US she took up skiing and became a teacher in a private school and eventually Principal of that school. Moira and Vijai made many good friends and they loved going to their condo in Frisco, traveling around Europe, India, and to Hawaii and Mexico. A party was not a party without Moira either dancing to Dancing Queen or press ganging people into a Scottish reel such as the Dashing White Sergeant. Moira would also regularly go back to the UK to visit her mother, family and friends. Even in her retirement, she continued to work as a substitute teacher.
As her grandchildren were born, Olivia Hess, Iain Hess, Simon Hess, Sophia Prakash and Sydney Prakash she would spend more time with them taking them hiking and bike riding. She was the type of Nana that got on the floor and played with the kids and Sonia’s dogs were included. Moira got involved in raising awareness of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension when Iain was diagnosed with it and was intimately involved in managing Vijai’s diabetes. Moira and Vijai had a life full of adventure, humor and joy that lasted until Vijai’s death in 2018. After living with Alzheimer’s for a number of years, Moira leaves her children and their spouses, Seema & John Hess, Simon & Heather Prakash, and Sonia & Kurt Brocko. Also, her cousin and his wife Phil & Jane Mackenzie, and the family friends of 54 years, the Irvings led by matriarch, Win, of Sunderland. Moira is also survived by her half sister Elspeth Merren and husband Chris, and their son Duncan.
A Celebration of Life will be held in July.
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