Jeanette was one of five children, she had one older brother, Tony, two younger brothers and a younger sister. I am Edward, Jeanette’s youngest brother. However, Jeanette would often refer to me as ‘Teddy Edward’ after the nineteen seventies show about a toy bear, the nickname sticking even when I reached the wrong side of fifty.
My first memory of Jeanette was bouncing on her bed to wake her up after a night shift or a night out, I can’t remember which, suffice to say she had bloodshot eyes and complained of a dry mouth. I remember looking up and staring at a picture of these hairy men pasted on her wall.
Men I now know to be Rod Stewart and Slade, her preference for the hirsute, masculine type continuing with the man she later married.
I first met future husband Keith when I was playing with some toy soldiers. I noticed Jeanette standing in the front bedroom with the light off so she couldn’t be seen. When the headlights of Keith’s car swung around the corner, pandemonium erupted.
‘He’s here! He’s here!’ she shouted, making the house rock as she ran down the stairs in her clogs, holding the bannister with one hand as her clogs slipped about, while pushing her hair around with the other.
There was a knock at the door. Jeanette composed herself and pulled her blouse straight, one last hair adjustment and she opened it. ‘Hellooo’ she said in a soft, girly voice. Nothing like the sister I knew!
And there he was. Keith.
It looked like one of those hairy men had come to life and stepped out of one of her bedroom posters, standing there resplendent in his thigh length leather jacket and flared trousers with a crease so sharp you could cut yourself.
My brother Raymond later enquired of Keith, ‘You don’t smoke, you don’t drink and you’re going out with my sister, what’s wrong with you?’
Well, it turned out nothing was wrong, each had found their soulmate, often behaving like kittens in one another’s company, feeding and preening each other and throughout their time together, regularly behaving like they had just met.
My sister Barbara’s memory of Jeanette goes back even further than mine. There was only a 14 month age gap between the sisters and they grew up together in every sense of the word.
Jeanette and Barbara were complete opposites. Get Barbara to make chips, she would rip open a bag of oven chips while Jeanette would select the best Maris Piper’s and do it properly – but as a duo the sister’s worked.
They quickly formed a strong bond and as little girls became a formidable force of nature who liked nothing better than to tease their brother Raymond.
On one occasion the two sisters and Raymond were sitting on the stairs after they had been sent to bed for being naughty. All three were itching to go back downstairs because Steptoe and Son was on the TV. Jeanette and Barbara convinced Raymond it was a good idea to go and ask Mum and Dad if they could watch it.
‘Get back up those stairs!’ Poor Raymond was quickly dispatched back to bed. Worse followed, as a reward for staying in bed, the sisters were invited back downstairs to watch their favourite programme.
Jeanette’s teenage years were often spent squabbling with Barbara, especially when getting ready for a night out when they would fight for ownership of clothes, make-up, hairbrushes and the all-important mirror. But as soon as they walked up the garden path, they were arm in arm and planning their evening fun. My Mum and Dad often despaired.
On one such evening Jeanette and Barbara went to a club called Cinderella’s on the A23. It was there Jeanette first met Keith and the start of their relationship and eventual marriage on the seventh of the seventh of nineteen seventy seven. A date chosen so nobody would ever forget their anniversary.
Jeanette had won her husband and her siblings had gained a fourth brother. Despite the relative chaos of the Perry household, Keith quickly fitted in as though he had always been there. As a couple they were always side by side and their hospitality was legendary, Jeanette’s cooking was out of this world and Keith ensured no glasses were empty for long.
Jeanette loved her home and sharing it with friends and family, trying to make people smile and be happy.
They particularly loved having their niece, Lorraine, over to stay with them when she was little. Lorraine would wrap herself up in Auntie’s dressing gown, snuggle up on the sofa and play the recorder with her.
Lorraine would still visit when she was all grown up. Lorraine is a sun worshiper and Jeanette would lay out a sunbed in the garden and place a reception desk bell next to her so she could ring for attention and Jeanette would appear like the shopkeeper from Mr.Benn.
We all know a cloud arrived in Jeanette’s life in 1996. A cloud that would break sometimes and let through some hope, and at other times becoming darker, trying to block out the light completely.
She began to take on crafts and hobbies she had always wanted to do, but work had always seemed to get in the way.
She loved her pottery, she loved her painting and she loved her embroidery to name just a few of her pleasures. She loved her garden, she loved her cats and she came to love mundane daily life.
She became an example of resilience and hope to us all. Jeanette was never afraid to give her opinion (whether you wanted to hear it or not!) but she always backed up her opinions with actions, always there to help, always there to care and always there to laugh.
Above all Jeanette loved Keith and I would like to thank him for making Jeanette feel loved and cherished every single day they were together.
As for the rest of us, we owe it to Jeanette to look back in celebration.
Don’t dwell on the clouds, dwell on the sunshine of her smile and the warmth of her heart.
Edward Perry
28th January2020