Jackie was born in 1941 and lived in Blaenavon, Monmouthshire until the family moved to Cwmbran when she was in her mid teens. She attended Pontypool Grammar School for Girls where she did well academically and also showed considerable promise in Physical Education and Music. Her Father, Jack, was a successful journalist working for the local paper but who was more widely known for the talent he displayed playing [rugby] for Pontypool.

After leaving school Jackie trained to be a Physical Education Teacher, like her older sister, Jill, at Bedford College, and taught in several schools in her home area before becoming Head of the P.E. Department at Combe High School for Girls in Kingston, Surrey in 1968.   

I met Jackie in 1969 when she had moved to Kingston upon Thames. I had just left college and had started teaching in a primary school in the London Borough of Suttton and we were introduced by a college friend of mine who was also teaching at Combe High School for Girls. We were married the following summer. She gave up working full time when we moved from Kingston to Cwmbran but she was often in demand as a relief 'supply' teacher.

Although she was a gifted sportswoman (in her youth she had represented Wales at Netball) I think her real love was music and she belonged to the Cwmbran Baroque Singers from the choir's formation in 1971 until her health gave way around 2006. She had a lovely contralto voice and was a regular soloist. She always had a flair for dressmaking and craftwork and when poor health meant that she had to give up teaching altogether she developed a longstanding interest in patchwork and quilting.

Throughout her life she was plagued with intermittent periods of ill-health. As a young woman she had suffered from ulcerative colitis which eventually led to major surgery. In her early fifties she started to experience extreme lethargy and it was discovered that she was suffering from an autoimmune condition called Lupus. Medication brought about a dramatic improvement but long term treatment with steroids caused her to suffer in later life from osteoporosis. We suspect that the Lupus had been at the root of many of her illnesses and might have contributed to the heart disease and kidney failure that occurred in later years. In her early sixties she was diagnosed with breast cancer which resulted in further radical surgery. 

In 2006 a persistent cough turned into pneumonia and it was touch and go whether she would get to our daughter's wedding. She made it with just days to spare, in a wheelchair and with a nurse on hand, hired for the day. In 2007 antibiotic treatment damaged her hearing: this was a cruel blow to a musician and singer and even with hearing aids I think she was still at a great disadvantage in conversation.

During the last two years of her life it was heart breaking to see someone who was so active and enthusiastic becoming weaker and weaker, to see her gradually being deprived of all the things she loved: the walking, the gardening, the music, the needle work, and generally being unable to take part… to belong.

She died at home with me at her side on 15^th August 2009, one week after our 39^th wedding Anniversary.