As my regular readers know I always try to mark the death of my close friends, I have to confess I never thought I would have to write this obituary. Parents should not have to bury their own children.
I have to report that my youngest daughter Janet died peacefully on Boxing Day surrounded by her family at home in Perth, WA. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer in early September and put up a brave fight against the inevitable. She leaves a husband and three beautiful children. The whole family has been caring for her supported by very efficient medical services but in particular by my daughters Margaret and Susan of whom I am so proud.
Janet was educated at York Street and then what we used to call New Road School. She won a place at University in Nottingham and a degree in Engineering specialising in high level software engineering. She started her career at Marconi's in Chelmsford but soon moved on to working for Sun Microsystems where she met Harry her future husband. They both worked on Risk Management for major London banks but then moved back to Perth where she and Harry worked at Nautronix developing ground breaking systems of undersea communications and Global Positioning. Harry died in an accident in 2003 aged only 38 while engaged in this work. Janet went on to become a senior manager of large data systems and was very successful. At her death she was working on new ways to make access to Big Data available to the public.
These are the bald details of a successful career but are surpassed by her other achievements; surmounting the hammer blow of losing Harry and guiding her three children successfully through the trauma of bereavement at such a young age, they are grown now into lovely intelligent grandchildren. I watched her do this from afar in absolute awe, your children can always surprise you!
Beyond that I had the pleasure of her company for 51 years. She was always a delight and support for me and, like her sisters, I love her dearly. Note that I say 'love her', this doesn't stop with death because as many of you know, the memories are always with us and can grow stronger over the years. Perhaps that was the greatest gift she gave all of us, a store of wonderfully happy memories of a life well lived and a courageous end.
My focus now is on my two daughters, the grand-children and her husband Robert who helped Susan care for her. They are suffering the loss much more than me, I am old and have no illusions about death. Janet gave me instructions to stay at home and keep all her friends informed and I thank them all for the support they have given me over the last three months. The only consolation I can offer is that we are not made poorer by her death but richer by her life.
Janet in 1977.
