The sweet-faced little artist in the picture above is my late Sister-in law Gillian, in about 1942. She actually developed into a very talented artist and teacher as an adult. This post is in loving memory as a year ago we received the news of Gill’s sudden death at the age of 73. It was the day before my Dad’s funeral, and we were back in England with my own family, when John was told by his brother that Gill had died the day before. She had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease in her later years and slowly the accompanying dementia was robbing us of this lovely, vivacious, witty and warm-hearted woman. The news was a terrible shock and made us very sad, but we all were relieved in a way that she had gone so quickly and painlessly.
My memories of Gill (or Jilly) are all happy ones, but of course I can only speak for myself. I knew her for the last forty years or so, and didn’t witness the many facets of the personality she shared with her family and friends. We only saw the picture above for the first time this week as her daughters have ensured that all her albums have been scanned and made available to us. She will of course feature in future posts but I’m linking this one with
Sepia Saturday, which is all about old pictures and memories.
She was John’s big sister, older than him by ten years; protective and caring. We still have a birthday card in which she had written that she loved him very much, and he for his part, told me when we first met that he ‘adored’ her.
The care and love Gill is showing young John in this picture, was mirrored in many family snapshots of her with children over the years.
Gill was expert at throwing babies into the air and making them laugh with delight. Both these sets of photos are some thirty-five years apart, showing her first with a daughter, and then a granddaughter.
She was a kind and affectionate aunty to my own two children, and there are many happy memories of Christmases past, when she ensured that there would be little treats and surprises, and not forgetting her famous treasure-hunts. Here’s Gill (above left), with her own daughters, and my two offspring in 1979, and in the second picture, taken in 2000, she is in her element with her three granddaughters.
Gill had two lovely husbands, both of whom pre-deceased her, but of whose extended families she was very much a part. I took this picture of her and her second husband in 2000, when she was still very active. She was a very creative lady and she filled her house with beautiful tapestries, pictures and quilts of her own making. On a chair in this house she had dolls she had made and cleverly embroidered features and added clothes so that they resembled her girls.
There is so much more to tell about Gillian, but some of the stories need to be added to by others and this is just one small chapter; an abridged version. Here she is one of my favourite pictures of her with John, taken about twenty-five years ago. It’s how I always think of her and how I best like to remember her.
Sepians will be pleased to know that Gill was a lover of old photos too.
I started this post of young Gillian being creative and that’s how I’m going to end it. Here she is sorting old sepia and black and white photos into her albums. Sadly Gill was not into computers or I’m sure she would have been a regular visitor to
Sepia Saturday.
Join us there this week to see what other contributors have come up with as they surface from delving into their own albums and shoeboxes of old photos
She joins me in wishing a Happy Christmas to everyone who has supported Hanging on My Word by visiting and leaving such lovely comments this year. She gets to read them all and has three of my ‘Sepia Stories’ books which she enjoys re-reading. Here she is with the latest issue on her birthday last month. Number four will be in her Christmas stocking. She also has ‘The Best of Sepia Saturday’ which she says is a really good read.
