My sister Jan, being seven and a half years my senior, was always there from the time I was born.  My early memories naturally include family days and holidays together, and being cared for by Jan and Ally as a young toddler - being pushed along in my pushchair by them is one of my earliest memories.  Jan helping me with homework sometimes, and being someone to look up to, especially when she left school and began working at Barclays Bank. There followed a period of time during my early teen years when Jan was not in my life, but we reconnected in the mid 1970s, and enjoyed a sisterly friendship once again.  At that time, she was living in Folkestone, and I visited her quite a few times, occasionally overnight, which usually included attending music events at the Leas Cliff Hall. Attending music festivals was one of her hobbies, and one that she shared with Ken.  

In the late 1970s Jan moved to Bracknell, and began working for 3M, where she worked until her retirement. She invited me to go with her on a skiing holiday in Austria, which we did in 1983 with our respective partners at the time - again, sharing one of her passions with others.  She very much enjoyed skiing, travel, and adventure - back in the 1980s, she did a solo parachute jump.

Jan used to write very long letters, back in the day of snail mail, that is. I still have several of her letters to me, which included news of places she had been, books or films that had attracted her attention, or just general chit-chat.  

Her other interests included star gazing - she would often talk about the planets and stars, and described herself as a scientist.  She had compiled the Colville family tree, both on paper and online, having done much research into the subject. Crafts were another hobby of Jan’s, especially in later years, when she enjoyed making jewellery, needlepoint, and abstract needlework, for which she had even designed her own family crest.  

For my fortieth birthday, Jan, Ken and Ally took me to the Mind, Body and Spirit festival in Olympia, London, where we found some great crystals and had a lovely day out all together.  When I moved to America, Jan and Ken came to visit in order to attend our wedding in 2003, which was lovely and I felt very supported by her.

Jan also loved her pets over the years, including guinea pigs, canaries, and more recently, cats, especially Marley. She liked solving Sudoku puzzles, and reading - her most recent passion in this sphere was Bill Bryson.  It was always lovely to sit with Jan over a cup of Earl Grey tea and never run out of things to talk about.

I will miss her very much.