Jean was born on December 27th 1931, the youngest of 5 children, to Fanny and Charlie Williams. Her first home was in one of the small bungalows opposite the ‘Plume of Feathers’ pub in Rickford and she started her education at Burrington School, so she always held fond memories of Burrington and the Church, which is why we are here today.

Just before World War II, the family moved to a newly built council house in Ladymead Lane, number 21 would be her home for the following 74 years. She completed her education at Churchill school at the top of the lane.

Jean doted on her older brothers often doing chores for them to buy rides on their motorbikes. A bit like the tale of “Goldilocks and the 3 bears”, one brother drove too fast, one brother drove too slow and one brother drove just right.

Her sense of humour was always playful and naughty. As children the 5 siblings would try and make the others laugh at the dinner table, which would mean instant expulsion to go and stand outside, this only added to the game, as whoever was sent out first would be making faces through the window to make the remaining children laugh, and join them outside.

After leaving school she started working in various houses around the village, she also did a short 6 week stint at Hales bakery in Clevedon and hated every minute. For most working with delicious cakes and donuts would have been a dream job, but Jean was soon put off by the wasps hanging around the vat of jam, and the ridiculous pace of the conveyer belt - she always described it like a Morecombe and Wise sketch, with cakes whizzing past before the first box was full.

She went on to work for Dr. Laing and his family. He was a professor at the University and Jean spent 8 years doing domestic work at their house in Lower Langford and often babysat the 2 children. When the family moved away, Jean was asked to go with them as they had all grown very fond of her, but she felt her own family ties to her parents.

Next she went to work at Tinknells the builders merchants on Station Road in Wrington. A certain Robert Richards started frequenting the shop more than usual, the owners often joked that if they banned him from the shop, then Jean would surely leave. She stayed there until she married Rob in 1968.

Two years later Nicola was born and in 1975 along came Neil.

One baby was a bossy little boots, always getting Jean and Nan to sit on the stairs and join in imaginary bus rides with their toys, the other was a real cry baby - forcing Jean to give constant attention, even making her carry them whilst vacuuming the house. It would be unfair to say which was which.

Although Jean became a ‘housewife’, she never gave up her ‘Tomboy’ nature, always playfully teasing Rob, Nicola and Neil alike, physically stronger than most men even though she was pint sized, chopping wood, carrying bricks and digging in the garden from dawn ‘til dusk.

Jean helped Rob in his many DIY projects including building a garage, 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and dining room area at 21 Ladymead, never complaining about all the dust and rubbish that had to be cleaned up on a daily basis.
There may have been a few times where she exasperatedly shouted from the laundry room “Rob, were you wearing your ‘good’ trousers to paint the wall?”.

Her life was centred around her family, always welcoming Nicola and Neil's friends into her home.

When Neil first went to primary school, the rules for starting age had just changed, being born in January this effected him and another little boy called Richard Livings, which is how Jean and Rosemary first met, and the lifelong friendship with ‘The Livings’ began. Nicola and Kate, Neil and Richard, both sets the same age and the best of friends - as welcome in 21 Ladymead as they were in Joe and Rosemary’s in Hillmead, truly a ‘second family’ whose friendship has spanned the last 35 years.

Jean spent many a lunchtime feeding the masses that descended on her kitchen after school, to the cries of “Thanks Mrs R” and every year without fail, she created a ‘Hedgehog cake’ for the children’s birthdays. In fact Jean started catering for Rob’s skittles team around 1985, also known as ‘doing the rolls’, which started out as a simple affair - but soon turned into a major job preparing ham and cheese rolls, boiled eggs and cutting up eye-watering onions - still the case up until recently, 30 years later.

In 2006, Neil married Rishma and the family grew to include Rish’s immediate family, her sister Vini in Australia and parents Rajani and Vidya in Malaysia, with extended family all over the world. Jean loved her daughter-in-law dearly, usually taking sides with her against Neil on any subject, referring to her as “My little Rishy”.

When Rob bought the cottage at Redhill, she again helped out on all the building alterations when necessary. After almost 10 years of work on the cottage and Rob’s retirement, they finally moved in. It was a bit of a wrench to leave the home she had lived in for over 70 years, but she soon settled into living on the hill and again spent hours on end landscaping and planting the new garden at the back of the cottage, overlooking the Mendip Hills.

Jean was very sure in her mind of what she liked and what she disliked, there was no time for middle ground, and you’d better hope you were on the right side of the list.

A few things that we relegated to the dislike column were:
CJ from the the programme ‘Eggheads’, People that don't say ‘thank you’ when they are given a valuation on ‘The Antiques Roadshow’, Or anyone that tackled a player from Manchester United football club - with screams of ‘foul’ if anyone went near Ryan Giggs.

But there were so many more things that brought her joy.
She loved gardening, developing her ‘green fingers’ at a very early age, there were always crops to be harvested and prepared, 21 Ladymead was never short of fresh fruit and vegetables. So many back-breaking hours were spent digging and planting flowers of all species and colours, enough to make Alan Titchmarsh jealous. In the latter years, she did allow herself some time to sit back and admire her work from the comfort of the chalet.

She was also a speedy and prolific knitter, creating myriad toys, jumpers, scarves, hats and blankets. A few years ago a tiny snowman appeared outside of the window at Ladymead and before he had a chance to melt, Jean had already clothed him with a miniature bobble hat and scarf.

Her most recent creations were for her beloved granddaughter, currently nicknamed ‘Lentil’ - due to arrive in 3 months time. Although they will never get to meet, Jean made sure that she will always remember her grandmother, with the most beautiful cardigans and hats to keep her warm on her visits to England.

Most of all Jean loved life, she loved her husband Rob whom she was married to for 48 years, she loved her children Nicola, Neil and Rishma and was looking forward to welcoming the next addition to the family.