to a cassette machine for her husband Jim to listen to in hospital following a stroke. The fact that co-star and close friend John Bardon (who played Jim) was recovering from a stroke in real life added extra pathos to the episode. In 2009, Brown was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. Brown's nomination came as a result of her "single-hander" episode of EastEnders, the director of which she praised. On 30 April 2012, it was announced that Brown was to take a six-month break from EastEnders and planned to write her autobiography during her time off. In October 2012, it was announced she had returned to filming, and she appeared on screen again from January 2013. Her autobiography, Before the Year Dot, was published in 2013. In May 2015, Brown revealed that her eyesight was failing due to macular degeneration. Later, in 2016, a storyline for Dot in which her eyesight was deteriorating was introduced. Speaking about the condition in April 2019, Brown said that it had worsened since undergoing surgery in 2017, and that she no longer went out socially because of her eyesight: "I never go to soap awards or suchlike now. I don't recognise people that I know and they would think I was snubbing them." On 20 February 2020, Brown announced that she had left EastEnders. Personal life and death In 1950, Brown met and married actor John Garley; he suffered from depression and killed himself in 1957. In 1958, she married actor Robert Arnold. They had six children in seven years, one of whom died in infancy. The couple were together for 45 years, until he died in 2003 of Lewy-body dementia. Thereafter, she lived alone in Surrey. Brown was a supporter of the Conservative Party and told The Guardian in 2009, "I wouldn't vote Labour, dear, if you paid me. I vote Conservative." Like her EastEnders character, she was a Christian. Brown was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours, both for services to drama and to charity. Brown died on 3 April 2022, aged 95. On the announcement of her death, the following day, EastEnders paid tribute to Brown and posted condolences from several of her former co-stars on social media, including Gillian Taylforth,