After many years our sister’s first relationship came to its end; there had been so much love and such traumas, but they kept in touch throughout their lives. In the ensuing period Jac had a brief but happy time with a close friend, an architecture student (who was also loved and known by her family) before deciding to go abroad for a while. He was a gentle young man with a very sensitive soul: much later in his life, tragically he was involved in a catastrophic motor bike accident.

Our sister was an enthusiastic and experienced traveller who loved the sun and the sea and she visited both Greece and Italy as well as Turkey; the latter holding the foremost place in her heart, and many were the postcards we received from far away places.

Her next significant relationship was with a young man, also an architecture student, whom she had met in that Liverpool milieu. They fell deeply in love and later married, and he has now become a professional and highly innovative architect. After living briefly in Liverpool, London and Cumbria they settled, finally, in the countryside of North Wales where they bought their first real home — an old cottage needing much work — and where they raised their family of two boys and a girl. Jac’s husband designed and oversaw the restoration of the house and in it are several examples of Jac’s stained glass which still give great delight to the present owners.

It was during this period of her life that our sister began to consolidate her career, being given many commissions — some from churches and corporations, others from private clients who would ask for particular designs for doors and windows etc, as well as for free-hanging glass panels. Her reputation grew steadily and as her work was claiming ever more of her time she enlisted the help of a young local girl who became ‘a sort of nanny’. She worked part-time with Jac and having an honest and loving nature became an integral member of her family. Now with two sons of her own she is to this day an invaluable part of all our lives.

This period of our sister’s life was so very full with the rearing of her children, and so artistically productive; it was a time predominantly of great happiness. However, very sadly, finally Jac’s marriage broke down — who these days has not experienced similar separations? — and she went to a cottage she found in a remotely lovely part of the local moorland. Her children continued to be educated — bi-lingually — at their existing schools, although as they were further away the move meant the school bus had now to be used, as well as her participation in the ‘school-run’. During this time our sister had made many enduring friendships with the other young mothers, which continued until after her children were grown.

Jac’s sisters.