Jennifer

My parents'  family comprised seven children; four girls and three boys. I was the middle child with two older and two younger, sisters and an older and a younger brother.

Jennifer has two children both boys and two grandchildren by Davey the youngest of her two sons. Her boys were by her bedside yesterday afternoon but we were advised against travelling to the hospital in Penarth near Cardiff, as she was by then, already unconscious.

Jennifer had an unusual life. When I was small and loathing boarding school (the four oldest in the family boarded) she used during the holidays, to take me out for example to the cinema where children's films were shown on Saturday mornings.  

She travelled to the then USSR and seemed  for a while to have a friendship of some kind with a young Muscovite  but the then Iron Curtain made such friendships impossible to continue for long. 

Later, she married a really nice man, Peter, who worked at what was then called as I recollect, Shellmex/BP. He used to play me the odd game of squash at  the company's squash courts some of which used to be at  their HQ near to Waterloo Station. Later upon their moving to a new house in South Wales near to Cardiff, mrs maytrees and I would visit sometimes staying overnight. 

Jennifer's mental health deteriorated and sadly in those days indeed until very recently, too little government money was spent on mental health services. During one of her mental episodes I recall that she managed to stowaway on a Concorde flight which thankfully was only a tourist trip from London to Rhoose airport or maybe she was discovered before take off. She was then taken to  mental hospital, which with the benefit of hindsight, was one way of securing the usually very difficult to obtain, mental health assistance from the state.

Some while later following several health issues, she asked Peter to divorce her, which with reluctance he did. Their two sons thrived and still do. I recollect the older son refusing a place at Oxbridge when he was kept waiting for hours for an interview and eventually he secured a first class degree (no mean feat in those days) from a provincial university, in I believe, engineering. The younger son David married and has a family.

Mrs  maytrees and I were fortunate enough to visit her in Penarth just before the Covid-19 lockdown closing hotels. We booked a hotel in Cardiff then visited her in the excellent home found for her by her son which Jennifer had purchased a few years previously. She took us for a walk through local parks and we all then enjoyed lunch together.

I shall miss Jennifer hugely, especially as she was only just on one side of the line dividing us all from sanity and insanity and I am, only just, on the other.

Last night about about 8pm  Jennifer the second oldest sister in the family, sadly died; may she R.I.P.