Mum loves to party, loves to dance and enjoy herself. She worked as a Student Counsellor at the local College in Luton and we went to LOTS of parties, held by her (Not sure if dad knew - hee hee). Also held by her Students, happy days... :-).
Mum was terrible for keeping to time. She was late for almost everything. When I used to compete and had races to get too. She was always late to leave home. The cheek of it was, she would blame my little bro and me for making her late!! It was always a joke that if mum said she would be ready at 4pm we needed to add couple of hours on LOL x
Many years ago during the exchange of Chritmas presents....it came to pass that a HUGE pair of knickers suddenly appeared as a gift for one of we three girls. They were massive, each year they were laughed at and kept for a year before being re-wrapped and sent on... each year we dreaded getting the 'does my bum look big in these' knickers. This went on for many years until one Christmas Jan said " Right - these are no longer funny, don't send them any more, I think they fit!! This was just one of many occasion that Jan made me laugh so hard the tears ran down my legs! I am truly sorry I cannot share with you a picture of one of us in said knickers!
Jan was never happier than when she was in the company of family and friends, but sometimes her illness would cause her to become tired very quickly and the pain would start, but to her this was a minor inconvenience - especially on the occasion of her annual Birthday Barbeque in July.
This was such an important occasion in her calendar that even the British Grand Prix (which always seemed to fall on that particular Sunday) had to take second place for me.
Mum used to spend hours every Sunday in the kitchen. She would cook and bake most of the day, scones (cheese and fruit), cakes, bread the house was full of lovely smells. She would lay tea out in the evening and us kid's would sit and eat it whilst watching the Muppet's! Wonderful memories of very happy times
She was so happy that day.
Once the noise and the tumult of the celebrations were over, in the quiet of our marital home, I renewed my promise to look after her for the rest of her life. I believe I didn't let her down ...
We had travelled to Normandy with our two grandsons, Matthew and Roy, and had stayed overnight at a charming little family motel situated on the hillside above the historic town of Honfleur.
Jan is seated on the small verandah of our chalet, finishing her breakfast.
Once breakfast was over, we visited the Landing Beaches of Normandy and made our way home later that evening.
In the early eighties, Jan was the Student Councillor at the local College of Further Education and I was working in Saudi Arabia.
One Friday evening, when I had arrived home on leave, she said she had a job for me. One of her students was going to a special function, but had nothing suitable to wear. Always willing to help out anybody, Jan had readily offered to lend the student one of her own dresses and had, true to form, 'volunteered' me to take a selection over to the student's address.
That's how I found myself driving to the other side of town with a boot full female evening wear and waiting patiently while the student -Adam! - picked out the one he liked best .....
We were relaxing and chatting to friends on the terrace of a charming restaurant overlooking the beautiful Alpine scenery on the Bavarian/ Austrian border. Jan's face was lit, not only by the soft autumn sunlight, but also by the reflected light from the huge menu she was studying. The images of our good friends, John & Joyce, were reflected in her sunglasses.
When we were kid's mum made us a lovely dinner but she must have had a "senior moment" because she put gravy on the pears and custard on the dinner. She tried to pass them off as "new sauces" but it didn't really work because we all knew what she had done, never mind mum.
I remember many years ago when we were leaving athletics training and it was really cold and the windows on all the car's in the car park were iced over. Mum was chatting away and started to clean the windscreen of a car, which is fine except it was someone else's car! She finally realised but it was too late for my friend and me as we were in fits of laughter.
