CLIVE White yesterday returned to his parents home in Blackbird Leys and gazed at the flowers left in memory of his mother Evelyn.

“She was everyone’s mother and her door was always open,” he said in tribute to the great-grandmother, who was killed in a fire at the house in Samphire Road on Thursday, December 30.

Her husband Lucas managed to escape and, as well as fondly recalling his mother, the couple’s 43-year-old son told how a smoke alarm in the property had at least saved his father.

Mrs White, 81, was found by firefighters inside her home in Samphire Road, Blackbird Leys, on Thursday, December 30.

Mr White was led to safety by neighbours and is now staying with Clive in nearby Vetch Place.

Clive said he and other family members were rallying round to look after his father.

He said: “He’ll be lost without her, there was nothing they didn’t do together.

“But I think he’s all right at the moment.

“He is surrounded by his children and grandchildren, so he’s never alone.”

And Clive hailed his mother as “just brilliant”.

He said: “She had a nickname, ‘Mamma’, because she was everyone’s mother.

“It was always an open house to everyone, the door was always open and she’d do anything for anybody.”

Clive said his parents’ home was fitted with two smoke alarms.

He added: “We know both were working because we put one at a position where my dad could reach it. It was still beeping when we returned to the house two days later.”

Mr White had been sleeping in a separate room to his wife because he was suffering back problems.

Both needed crutches or walking sticks to move around.

Clive said: “It was the smoke alarm that woke my father up. He heard it from the other room, but obviously it took him a long time to get out of the house.

“It would have taken him about 15 minutes to get out.

“And my mum was even less mobile than him, so with the fire upstairs she never could have got out.”

Mr and Mrs White moved to Blackbird Leys in 1961.

Mr White worked at the Cowley car factory, while Mrs White is believed to have worked at Oxford University colleges before her retirement.

They were married for more than 50 years, and also had three daughters Janet, Sandra and Brenda.

Clive said: “They have six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

“My mother was a very proud grandmother, she would have done anything for the kids.”

Funeral preparations are now under way, with the ceremony expected to take place in late January.

Firefighters believe the blaze was probably caused by a discarded cigarette.

Neighbours helped raise the alarm and pulled Mr White to safety.

Clive said: “I want to thank the neighbours for all their help and support.

“And although my mother lost her life, the smoke alarm definitely saved another.”