Monday, August 2, 2010

Vale Jean Bennett


On Saturday, in accordance with her wishes, Jean's ashes were scattered at Bilgola beach, and a large group of family and friends gathered to farewell her. Unwell for some time, Jean was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer only a week before she died.

Jean was a relatively new member of our group at Epping Library, but she brought a lot to our meetings apart from her knitting   - her friendly smile; her cheeky sense of humour;  her film reviews;  her "tell it as it is" attitude to life. Some of the group had the privilege of meeting her extended family at her farewell - although she was an only child, and had never married, it was very apparent to us that Jean was part of a large, loving family. It's so often the case that we learn more about people at their farewells, than when they were alive - and we learnt from her family and friends of the full, active life that Jean had lived - always a member of many and varied community groups; swimming weekly with a large active group of friends at Bilgola; bushwalking; backpacking, alone,  around the world at 60 after her retirement - it seems there is so much we still had to learn of Jean's life.

Jean's presence will be greatly missed at our weekly get-togethers.

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