Jan grew up in Birkenhead on the Wirral, where she lived until getting married. From there she went on to spend 20 years on the coast of Hoylake and West Kirkby before moving to Shropshire.

Her parents stayed and lived in Birkenhead their entire lives. Barney, her dad, was a trade unionist and always involved the rest of the family in his politics. The entire family was involved with the Labour Party for many years and Barney remained involved in politics until the day of his death. “Behind every strong man is a stronger woman and my mum, Agnes, supported him every step of the way.”

Barney and Agnes first met when they were young teenagers, Barney was 12 months older than Agnes and one of his friends told him to ‘leave that girl alone, she’s too good for you’. She first started the conversation by borrowing a threepence from him for a cup of tea on her way to work. Soon after they would sit and hold hands in Birkenhead Park. Their relationship was a true love story, they did everything together. When they had Jan and her brother, the children were the focus of their attention, and they were educated well. Barney and Agnes instilled in their children respect, honest living, and hard work.

As Jan’s parents aged, they both had major health issues that they overcame. “My mum had bowel cancer in her early 60s, she was such a fighter, so once she’d had surgery her attitude was ‘I’ve had cancer, I haven’t got it now’. She had no chemotherapy or radiotherapy, she just moved on and lived another 20 plus years cancer free. My dad was then diagnosed with epilepsy in his 60s, he never really accepted it and he hated not being able to drive any more after being a lorry driver. He went into hospital for a biopsy as he had some breathing difficulties and due to complications ended up being in there for 9 months. They didn’t think he would ever come out and would need to go into a care home. For my mum this was never an option. When he did come home he had to learn to speak and walk and function again.”

After coming out of the hospital, with Agnes caring for him, Barney made great progress in his recovery and went back to driving and being involved in local politics. Sadly Agnes was then diagnosed with dementia. All the plans the couple had made for their retirement had been scuppered by ill health. Barney now began caring for Agnes with help from external carers and the support of other family members. Barney was adamant that Agnes would not go into a care home, regardless of his own feelings or health. “He was very lonely when he was caring for my mum. Despite being at home and they had carers coming in four times a day and very close family.”

One day Jan was at a fundraising dinner for a charity and her phone rang. It was her dad, he told her he’d been to the doctor’s that morning and the GP wanted him to go to hospital as he had some indigestion the night before. The doctor had written him a letter to take with him to the hospital. Jan rushed to pick Barney up, she dropped him at the front door of the hospital due to his mobility issues; by the time she’d parked the car and got back to him he was wired up to a machine. The letter the doctor had written for him said he’d had a heart attack.

“He was in Arrowe Park Hospital for more than four weeks. They kept telling us he was going to Broadgreen Hospital for heart surgery. We put carers in place for my mum during this time, and my brother and I shared the overnight care. We thought Dad was just going to have a bypass and then he’d come home. We were even talking about what he wanted to do when he came home, we’d made enquiries about a care home for both him and my mum so that they could be in a double room. My dad was transferred to Broadgreen on a Saturday night, I was terrified, but he just said it would all be ‘fine’ and he’d be out soon. We went to see him on Sunday and while we were with him the consultant came in to chat with him. You could tell from the tone of the conversation it was more serious than just a bypass. He had the operation on the next day and he never regained consciousness.”

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