© 1997 - 2009

Jean Thiel

10 July 1948 - 30 May 2002

Vicki (2003)

I met Vicki in 1997 when I started at a local business.  Vick worked on the reception in a different portacabin to the one where I worked.  We quickly made friends and would go to lunch a lot together.  It wasn't long before I started seeing her outside of work and I introduced her to my then, boyfriend.  Vicki introduced me to virtually all of her family within the first year of knowing her.  I'd met her two sisters, Lizz and Kate, her Aunty Maggie and partner Dave and Aunty Irene and husband Brian, Uncle Bob, cousin Karen and her husband Kevin.  Then Vick introduced me to her Mother, Jean.  She lived in New Addington at the time with her Father, Vicki's Granddad.

Jean worked for a firm in Croydon and we'd joke on the phone, each time she'd telephone for computer support, about her... well let's call it, admiring the boss.  His name was Julian and he was to become her husband in April 2002.  I realised Jean was special when she'd spend a considerable amount of time with me, talking over the problems I was having at the time.  But if I wasn't sure how totally genuine and caring she was, it was all confirmed to me when I spent time in hospital and she visited.  That afternoon, with just Jean and I was a strange spiritual feeling I've never had before or since.  All I can think of, is that it was extremely special and I feel mentally strong whenever I think of Jean now!

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In between times of talking on the phone with each other and seeing one another whenever we could, Jean and I spent time to write to each other.  In one of her letters, when she had one of her more 'spiritual' moments, Jean would know exactly how I felt and send me messages and even things like this message:

And then again, Jean sent me this piece that was to be used and I heard once again, at her ceremony in Croydon crematorium, ready by Julian... on 30 May 2002.

Don't Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will

When the road you’re trudging seems uphill

When the funds are low, and the debts are high

And you want to smile, but have to sigh

When things are pressing you down a bit

Rest if you must, but don’t you quit

Success is failure turned inside out

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt

You never can tell how close you are

It may be near when it seems so far

So, stick to the fight when the hardest hit

It’s when things go wrong that you mustn’t quit

Death Is Nothing At All

I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I and you are you.  Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.  Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used.  Put no difference into your tone; wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.  Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.  Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.  Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.  Let it be spoken without effort, without the trace of a shadow on it.  Life means all that it ever meant.  It is the same as it ever was; there is unbroken continuity.  What is death but a negligible accident?  Why should I be out of your mind because I am out of your sight?  I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near just around the corner.

ALL IS WELL.

Vicki, Mum and me (2000)