Jean Hannah Greenhalgh (30 Mar 1928 - 27 Mar 2022)

In loving memory of Jean Hannah Greenhalgh who sadly passed away on 27th March 2022.

Jean, our mum, was born in Liverpool to a large family of girls, Ruby, Elsie, Joyce, Margaret, Edna and Jean, and one boy, Charles, affectionately named Sonny. As a child Mum’s bedroom was on the top floor of a four story house; there was no electricity and only a candle lit her way to bed at night. She grew up in the great depression and Second World War, when she was an evacuee, sent to Maghul, Merseyside.

As a young teen, she started her working life, becoming a short-hand typist and secretary. The first time she saw a typewriter she instantly knew she wanted to be a secretary just so she would get to use one.

Mum was delicate, graceful, convivial and active. As a young woman she was in the Maghul Wheelers, a cycling club, and she and her friends cycled the length of the country, visiting the coast and staying in Youth Hostels. Later sporting loves were swimming, badminton, bowls and line dancing - as much opportunities to socialise as to keep fit and have fun. She always had a wonderful sense of humour – a true Liverpudlian throughout her life – always full of laughter and clever sarcasm.

Mum married a soldier, our dad, Leslie Greenhalgh and five children followed; Barbara, Leslie, Jean, Stephen and Julie. She talked with tenderness of the failed pregnancies along the way. During our lives as a military family, Mum and Dad conducted Sunday Schools preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to all who would come to us. Mum would serve tea and cakes and we would all sing gospel choruses proclaiming the saving power of The Lord Jesus Christ. Lifelong friends were made and never lost despite distance. Such was the strength of the bond found in learning about Jesus Christ.

When Dad left the army, he and mum settled in Mansfield. Both sons joined the forces and grandchildren have followed the same path in life. Mum always held the military in high esteem and attended military occasions such as the Trooping of the Colour and the Grenadier Guards memorial service, Black Sunday, where she had happily conversed with Prince Phillip like he was an old friend.

After Dad passed at age fifty, Mum stoically picked up the vigour and strength required to carry on. She was always busy with her many clubs, social groups and her extensive family. She went on holidays abroad with her sisters, and even toured Australia, where her daughter Jean lives. She seemed to have relentless energy and zest for life, only slowing down in her final years due to ill health.
She welcomed numerous grandchildren into her familial embrace and thrived as the matriarch of our Greenhalgh family.

Mum was 93 years old when she passed. Her physical health rapidly declined over the course of a few years, frustratingly for Mum, impeding her independence. Eventually it was clear dementia was making changes and later, after an accident in which she broke her right thigh bone, her body ceased to heal.
Dementia slowly takes away our loved ones but through those years, despite the dementia, Mum was always kind, always polite – even when in pain, she frequently made us all laugh, her personality would shine through unexpectedly. She never complained, was always so grateful and loving, delicate and graceful. I was always reminded that I loved her and she loved me.

As I cared for our mum in her final few years, and especially in those weeks just before she passed, when she was at her most fragile, her grace, courage and unconditional love were as strong and clear as ever.