My mum is in Colchester General with Covid which she contracted whilst in for a fall and hip operation. She’s 83 and her oxygen levels are 60%. The next 24 hours are really the last chance, here she is in the 1970s with my sister. Happier times.

I’d like to thank everyone at @ESNEFT #Colchester for their incredible hard work especially Dave the nurse who kept her spirits up and Dr Govindar who rang us today with the news. We cannot thank you enough for all you are doing for her.

Update on mum. Here she is last week smiling at dad on a video call. The news is not good; she is now on the End of Life Pathway

My mum just looks like a little old lady now but she has had an extraordinary life.

She was born in Stowmarket, Suffolk in 1937 to George and Doris. Doris was a businesswoman who ran the photography shop in Stowmarket she had taken over, aged just 19, in 1920 when her father George died young. Doris was one of 12 children.

Mum was four when a retuning German bomber unloaded his leftover bombs over #Stowmarket; mum (Jacky) was in the back of the photography shop with her sister when it happened.

Jacky went to the girls school in Colchester and studied art, but Doris wouldn’t let her attend university and instead she joined @Barclays Bank. She met my dad as a teenager when he was at @ColchesterRoyal Grannar School.

Doris didn’t approve of my dad (a Londoner) and wouldn’t let them marry from home. Her sisters wedding dresses were all made by their uncle Jack, but mum and dad ran off to Edinburgh where they married with just two witnesses.

Here is their wedding photo. When I was living with them this autumn to shield them whilst my son went to college, she told me she made the dress. The hat is covered with white feathers!

They moved to Liverpool where dad ran the basement floor at @littlewoods, and then to Newcastle. Here she is photographed by dad:

The couple became @BritishQuakers in the 60s and mum was warden of #Newcastle meeting house when my sister and I were born. I was born in the meeting house flat in Jesmond Road.

In 1967 with two toddlers, dad took up a job with the British Forces Education Service and we all went to #Singapore. The #teaching profession was poorly paid in the 60s and he took up the job for the better pay, and the adventure!

Singapore Friends meeting circa 1968. I’m the blond one in the home made dress. Quakers at the time were supporting many conscientious objectors from the Vietnam War. Mum got involved in packing up penicillin and other medication to send to the civilian population of Vietnam.

In 1971 dad moved us all to #Germany. I was five. Mum loved Germany (she had visited as a teen in the 1950s). She picked up the language and became a translator.

Mum was great at German. She worked for the RMPs helping interpret between German civilians and the British Army, and helping squaddies out when the fell foul of the German police.

She was also a brilliant plantswoman. The house was always full of plants and she always had a stall at dad’s school Fetes - here she is at Slim School in Hohne BFPO30.

Mum also loved the Netherlands and took Dutch O-Level in her 40s. We returned to London in 1981 and when we were at university she took a Dutch degree at @ucl with Indonesian.

Mum has always been concerned with the bad effects of war and her thesis studied responses to WWII in contemporary Dutch literature, as exemplified by de aanslag (The Assault) by Harry Mulisch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Assault

When in Germany she had accompanied visitors to Belsen (we lived a few km away) and been a Quaker prison visitor.
Returning to the UK she joined @LifeLines25 and met Jan Arriens and @CliveSSmith.

Over 20 years she wrote to numerous prisoners on #deathrow. Her three main correspondents all had their sentences commuted, including James, whom mum and dad went to Atlanta to visit.

Mum had a brilliant career after graduating @ucl with honours at 50. She worked for Beechams (now @GSK) as a specialist medical translator and later set up a consultancy. When she retired at 70 she was a member of @ITIUK and was never short of translating work.

In the 1990s she translated (Dutch-English) a huge set of documents about infectious diseases. The instructions were originally aimed for distribution via DVD across Africa and are still in use (including on the internet now of course).

Mum’s life has been the embodiment of Quaker values. Listening to the still, small voice, mediating and seeking ways forward, loving kindness, yet a strong voice of conscience. I am proud to be her daughter.

Here is mum with my son. She and Dad moved out of London 16 years ago to be near us and she loved building a relationship with him.

Here are mum and dad in Colchester hospital with my son who was born there in 2004

The wonderful staff at @ESNEFT #Colchester are helping my dad FaceTime my mum every day. Today she cried whene he was talking to her about all the lovely things they have done together - the first response we have had from her in days xx
Here she is in Singapore in 1968:

If you want to know how important communication with loved ones in hospital during #COVID19 is, listen to @MichaelRosenYes’s story on the Reunion: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000qlzh

Update on Mum:
Mum is now barely conscious but Dad is still FaceTiming her daily. She is expected to be moved to @StHelenaHospice tomorrow to continue her end of life care xxx

This afternoon mum moved to the hospice which will be her home for her last few hours in this life. We spoke to mum on Facetime, thanking her for sharing her life with us. /

We played her favourite song, written by Udo Jurgens with lyrics by Eckart Hachfeld, Zeig mir den Platz and der Sonne (Show Me a Place in the Sun)/

Lyrics in German (English to follow below):

In meinem Herzen flattert leise
Ein kleiner bunter Schmetterling
Den schickt die Sehnsucht auf die Reise
Wenn ich von meinen Träumen sing

In my heart, quietly fluttering
Is a tiny pretty butterfly
Longing sends it on a journey
When I sing about my dreams

Ich seh ein Land, es liegt noch weit
Wo Liebe wohnt und Zärtlichkeit

I see a place still far away
Where love and tenderness dwell

Zeig mir den Platz an der Sonne
Wo alle Menschen sich versteh'n
Liebe allein ist die Sonne
Drum darf die Liebe nie untergehen

Show me the place in the sun
Where everybody understands each other
The sun is love alone
And therefore love will never die

Wen kümmern noch des Nachbarn Schmerzen
Wer hilft dem Nächsten durch die Tat?
Wir haben Riegel vor den Herzen
Und um die Seele Stacheldraht

Who cares about their neighbour’s pain?
Who helps the next man through the day?
We have bars around our hearts
And around our souls, barbed wire

Ich such ein Land, es liegt noch weit
Wo Friede wohnt und Menschlichkeit

Zeig mir den Platz an der Sonne
Wo alle Menschen sich versteh'n
Liebe allein ist die Sonne
Drum darf die Liebe nie untergeh'n

I seek a place still far away
Where peace and humanity dwell

Show me the place in the sun
Where everybody understands each other
The sun is love alone
And therefore love will never die

Update on mum: Sunday
Mum had a peaceful night. Dad FaceTimed her this afternoon and her eyes were open but she isn’t focusing.
Her breathing is very laboured.

Here is a pic of Mum in the 1980s in Germany. The cardigan was a gift from a German student mum was teaching English to - she did a lot of voluntary work like that

Jacky W Hall
4/10/1937 - 10/1/2021
Mum passed away peacefully in her sleep this evening.
Rest in peace mum. We love you xxx