 From the mid @-@ 1980s Gibbons experienced recurrent health problems , not helped when she resumed smoking . In her last months she was looked after at home by her grandson and his girlfriend . She died there on 19 December 1989 , after collapsing the previous day , and was buried in Highgate Cemetery , alongside her husband . At her funeral , her nephew and future biographer Reggie Oliver read two of her poems , the latter of which , " Fairford Church " , concludes with the words : " Little is sure . Life is hard . / We love , we suffer and die . / But the beauty of the earth is real / And the Spirit is nigh . " 
