Jean Jarvis was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, a market town in the East Midlands and part of the Portland estate within the Dukeries.
Her working life has been spent in schools in Worksop and Sheffield. She lived through the time when Britain was recovering from World War II. It was the time of Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets.
She met and married the curate and became his wife and mother of two children.
During this time, she met John Betjeman, a friend of her husband. She acquired his fun name, "The Smasher".
Her love of art and music continued throughout her life, and she became a church organist. Her love of painting is a set of fourteen stations of the cross, which was on show for a short time in Derby Cathedral.
This is the story of a long and happening life, told in slices.