TRIBUTES have been paid to an 'outgoing and brave' York guest house owner who died following a battle with illness.
Paula Marie Coates passed away aged 48 following a brain tumour diagnosis.
Paula, who loved running and took part in 13 marathons, was the owner of Abbey Guest House with her husband, Rob. The couple purchased the site in January 2020 and ran it together until she became too ill to work in the spring of last year.
Rob described his wife as "outgoing and fun" - and said she enjoyed socialising, meeting with family and friends for coffee and lunches, or a Sunday lunch with a glass of wine.
Rob said: "She enjoyed dancing and singing and never wanted to leave a party early.
"Paula was an animal lover and during our time together we had seven cats and one dog, not all at the same time although we did have five cats at one time.
"Paula was also very brave and didn’t complain about her situation, she tried to live the last 20 months of her life as best she could."
Rob said he and Paula often went walking with their family - and "no challenge was too great for her". In her time, she climbed Scafell Pike, Helvellyn along the difficult Striding Edge route and Blencathra along the even more difficult Sharp Edge route, amongst many others.
Paula was also a keen skier and she visited the 'home of skiing', St Anton in Austria, many times both with Rob and their daughter Lucy, as well as with her skiing pals.
She was also a big theatre fan and loved going with Lucy, as well as to pop concerts with friends. Over the years she went to see the likes of Take That, Robbie Williams and The Killers with her sister or her friends.
Paula enjoyed to travel, visiting Greece and Mallorca on many occasions as well as Sardinia, Sorrento and Austria to name a few.
"She had hoped to go to New York too, it was somewhere she had always wanted to visit. The trip would have been to celebrate her 50th birthday and Lucy’s 25th," Rob added.
Rob said his wife was also a big fan of watching horse racing, although he thought this was for the socialising and getting dressed up as much as anything.
"We used to go to York races a couple of times a year with a big gang of friends," he added.
During her career, Paula worked at Shepherd Construction in York before moving to their family-owned firm in 2001. Then in 2014 she set up her own beauty therapy business called 'Rejuvenate', which she closed when the couple purchased Abbey Guest House.
Paula died on October 4 last year.
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