Loving mum who cared for others as a nurse
NURSING AUXILIARY JENNIFER WAS A CARING CHARACTER WHO LOVED GO ON HOLIDAYS TO FRANCE WITH HER HUSBAND DAVID AND THEIR TWO SONS PETER AND DANIEL
IT was her creativity and an eye for detail that led to an early career as a window dresser, but it was the caring nature that made Jennifer Sarah Morris such a wonderful wife and mum, and caused a career change later on. “Jennifer started working as a nursing auxiliary when our youngest was five, doing night shifts at Southmead Hospital,” says husband David. “And then she became a nursing auxiliary on the district, visiting the infirm and the injured. “Jennifer worked out of the Lawrence Weston and Henbury Clinics, and she loved nursing. She was very good at it. “She enjoyed going out to patients and her nature was very caring. She was very much a people person. Had she gone into nursing when she was younger, I have no doubt Jen would have been an SRN.” Jennifer was born in Beckenham in Kent, and moved to Bristol with her family when she was two after her father Richard Young, an architect, got a new position with the Co-op. One of two children of Richard and mum Lorna – Jennifer has a surviving sister, Susan – she went to St Ursula’s private Catholic School for Girls, before studying at Filton Technical College. Jennifer worked as a window dresser for a number of department stores including Coleman’s, Fairfax House and Debenhams but, like many women of that era, she gave up work for a while when children came along. She and David had been childhood sweethearts. “I met Jen when she was 14,” remembers David. “We used to hang around together, a group of girls and boys, and we’d meet at parties and Westbury Park Youth Club. We started going out as a couple pretty much then and, while we drifted apart a little, I bumped into her again in 1967 and that was it. “She was a good-looking girl and there was just a chemistry, we clicked.” David and Jennifer were married at Westbury Park Methodist Church on March 29, 1969, and their two sons, Peter and Daniel, were born in 1972 and 1975. Jennifer was very family orientated. She was a doting and loving mum, and she, David, and the boys used to love going on camping and caravanning holidays, often in France. Life changed for the family when Jennifer suffered a stroke at the age of 49 which initially left her with slight mobility problems, and which affected her speech. She spent two years having intensive speech therapy, and it was sadly to be the start of her ill-health – “although she never complained”, adds David. Holidays further afield to America were swapped for trips closer to home in Europe, but they still travelled together. David, a personnel director, retired early in 2006 to help care for his wife as her health deteriorated, and they bought a motorhome in which they covered the length and breadth of the UK. “Cornwall was a favourite, but we went to Scotland, and along the Welsh coast,” says David. “They were very happy times. Jen got her own mobility scooter and then a wheelchair, and we were lucky to live near the harbourside. I made a point of taking her out every day so she got out and about.” Jennifer, who developed dementia, died from a heart blockage, aged 71. David says his music-loving wife, who had two grandchildren Oscar and Tabitha by eldest son Peter, was very well known in the area they lived. “Jen was popular with everyone she met, and very well-liked. She was always spoken very highly of. “We were married for 51 years so we celebrated our Golden Wedding and, although I will miss her, I am lucky to have so many happy memories to look back on.”
Although I will miss her, I am lucky to have so many happy memories to look back on
David, Jennifer’s husband