Jacqui was a mother of "Real" Boys as someone once described after she let us out the house for the umpteenth time carrying our football goals to the green where we would kick lumps out of the ball - and each other. She always longed for a daughter but after the third boy landed in the world even bigger and heavier than the last she decided that maybe it wasn't worth the risk of trying again! It's perhaps fitting that a women who spent her youth and adult life breaking down the social barriers that restricted women that in motherhood she would find herself responsible for moulding 3 boys. 

You will be unsurprised to learn that as a mother of 3 boys she gave as good as she got. Freddie once wrote to his French penfriend aged 10 that her hobbies were singing and shouting. She was the only parent in the school to visit the headmaster multiple times to complain we weren't receiving enough homework (anything for 30 mins of peace) and she is also to this day the only Hookway ever to receive a red card at a football match. So maybe shouting was one of her hobbies....

However, it is perhaps in her first hobbie, singing, that as a mother she connected with us the most. Her music was always an integral part of her life and the way she conveyed her emotions most effectively. It was in her nightly singing sessions that she taught us about the emotions that all mothers go through from unconditional love, to fear, to hurt and pride. One of my happiest memories of her is sitting round the campfire at Scouts with her leading the sing song. In the pack she was the living embodiment of her scout name Baloo and we were her Mowglis. 

Lastly as a mother it would be incorrect to say that in her illness the caring role was reversed. I remember even in the advanced stages of her illness sitting on the end of the bed with her slowly typing out advice and guiding me on my relationships, studies and friendships. I am sad that I cannot communicate with her now but then I play one of her albums and realise that her music and her heart, can live on with us forever.