Auntie Jackie in The View from the Terrace

Today, October 29 is my Auntie’s birthday. She was my mother’s sister and only sibling so, since my dad was an only child, she was my only aunt and her husband my only uncle. Her name was Winfred but no one ever called her that as she hated it, she was always Jackie as her surname was Jackson. She was also my Godmother. She wanted me to be named Jaqueline so that I would be Jackie too but Dad didn’t like girls names that sounded like boy’s name so that didn’t happen.

I don’t think that was the only reason. Dad didn’t really approve of her. Auntie Jackie was very much of an individual. I think she was born ahead of her time. She had loads of friends and used to go away on holidays to places like Jersey with a group of them. That’s normal now but people didn’t do that so much in the 30s. When I knew her in the 50s she wore trousers a lot which was also unusual then. She had a rather attractive deep voice. Sometimes she reminded me of Katherine Hepburn. She didn’t marry until 1950 at the age of 46 so she never had children which was a shame as she would have made a great mother, but in a way she had hundreds of children as she was a primary school teacher. She and her husband never had any money but they did have a lovely sports car. He was ex RAF with a moustache to prove it. I loved them but Dad was a careful, conventional man who saved and didn’t really approve of their lifestyle. Uncle Brian was 15 years older than her and died after just 7 years of marriage but she always said those 7 years were worth a lifetime with anyone else. Auntie Jackie died when I was 18.

When my mother died 22 years later our cousins came to her funeral. They hadn’t then met Cat who was 2. They came in to our house with a big bunch of flowers and, amist the hugs and kisses, Cat ran into the room. Cousin Joyce looked at her gasped and said ‘Jackie’. It was true. Cat doesn’t look like her but has the same gestures and the same way of being who she is whether the world approved or not. Joyce could see it even then.

Cat doesn’t follow fashion she dresses in her own style just as Auntie Jackie did and she pushes the boundaries as Auntie Jackie did. She even stands like her. I wish Auntie Jackie could have met her.

This is Auntie Jackie and Uncle Brian on their wedding day