Leiston: Remembering devoted foster carers who ran Carolyn's

Graeme and Carolyn Proudfoot were a devoted couple who died within three months of each other.  

While they came to call Leiston their home, they first met over 3,000 miles and an ocean away.  

Carolyn and Graeme were married in Kuwait. Image: Proudfoot family (Image: Proudfoot family)

Carolyn and Graeme were married for more than 50 years. Image: Proudfoot family (Image: Proudfoot family)

Kai said that her grandfather Graeme was besotted with Carolyn from the moment they met. Image: Proudfoot family (Image: Proudfoot family)

Graeme was originally from Scotland, but his family had moved to America when he was a child. In his late teens, Graeme joined the RAF and was stationed to Kuwait, which was where he met the love of his life, Carolyn.   

Carolyn had been widowed as young woman, already a mother to a young son, Steve, and pregnant with a daughter, Caroline.   

“She really felt that her life was over when she went to Kuwait,” explained the couple’s granddaughter, Kai Fisher. “But my grandpa was, and always has been, besotted with her from the moment they met.”  

Graeme and Carolyn married in Kuwait on September 16, 1965, and Graeme become a loving father to Carolyn’s eldest children. They soon welcomed two more children, Graeme Junior and Fiona, known as Fi, completing the family of six.

Graeme was still stationed in the RAF, and the family travelled the world with him over the next few years, including a memorable time spent in Singapore.  

However, in the early 1970s they felt that it was time to return to England. Graeme left the forces, and the family arrived in Aldeburgh.  

They used the money that Graeme had earned to buy a shop in the neighbouring town of Leiston, Carolyn’s Haberdashery.   

Carolyn Proudfoot in her haberdashery shop 'Carolyn' in Leiston, preparing a window display for Prince Charles and Lady Diana's wedding in 1981. Image: Archant archive / Carolyn Proudfoot (Image: Archant archive / Carolyn Proudfoot)

Carolyn Proudfoot had a great sense of fun. Image: Proudfoot family (Image: Proudfoot family)

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Many from Leiston will have fond memories of this shop, which was run by the Proudfoot family for over 43 years. Kai explained that many members of the family took their turn serving in the shop – her first job was as a Saturday girl, earning £2.50 an hour.  

Fi took the reins of the business after her parents retired, until the shop finally closed its doors in 2020.  

Once her own children began to leave home, Carolyn suggested to Graeme that the couple become foster carers.  

“She always loved children,” said Kai. “They started off fostering siblings. They would take in any children they possibly could. This included them moving to a larger property with five bedrooms, so they could take in more.  

“They were then able to foster not just cases of siblings, but mothers and babies. At that time, they were the only foster caring unit in Suffolk that would take on both a teenager and a baby at once.   

“They provided a safe space for many young mums.”  

From the early ‘90s to the mid-2000s, Graeme and Carolyn fostered an incredible 76 children and young mothers.

Graeme Proudfoot with his granddaughter, Kai. Image: Proudfoot family (Image: Proudfoot family)

Kai Fisher said her grandmother Carolyn was the life and soul of the party. Image: Proudfoot family (Image: Proudfoot family)

Kai Fisher said that Graeme was quieter and his wife, and very level-headed. Image: Proudfoot family (Image: Proudfoot family)

Carolyn Proudfoot, holding new-born great-granddaughter, Ivy. Image: Proudfoot family (Image: Proudfoot family)

Kai, her siblings and cousins will fondly remember their grandmother for her warm, homemaking personality, and the ‘sweet teas’ she used to make her family on Sunday evenings.  

“We used to joke that she was ready to feed the army in case they popped by, because she would always have so much food on the go at any given time,” remembered Kai.

“Her dining room table was actually two large tables put together, because we would usually have a minimum of 13 to 15 people per meal.  

“My grandma was the life and soul of the party, while my grandpa was the quieter one. He was very level-headed.”  

Kai enjoyed a close relationship with her grandfather. He was devoted to his wife and family, and would do anything to put a smile on their faces.  

Carolyn Proudfoot died at the age of 82 on December 30, 2022. Graeme Proudfoot died on March 20, 2023, at the age of 78.  

They are survived by their four children, their eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.  

To read more tributes to those we have loved and lost in Suffolk, click here.