Please let me offer my deepest condolences at this time of pain and loss. I pray you find peace.

For the Healey and DeVries Families, I hope these memories bring a smile to your face.

Jilll was my older cousin by10 years and I spent a lot of my developmental years with her and the other members of the Healey clan, especially Lisa, who was like another older sister to me. For a few summers when I was between three and five years old Jill would come to babysit my sister Linda and I while my mom worked. Lisa would often come as well, so poor adolescent Jill had her hands full with the three of us. I am told that I was always a bit of a handful and as I got older when I would see Jill at family gatherings and she had started her own family, she would always tease me that babysitting one of me was easier than raising four of her own. I am so glad I was able to assist Jill in that way : ) My memories of Jill during those times are of her dancing with me to her Beatles records. My mom, Joanne laughing out loud when she would come home and the pickle jar would be empty, all but for one lone pickle floating in the brine. She said it was because Jill was too sweet and polite to eat the last one, even though she loved pickles. I wonder if she still does...I really thought the world of Jill, so much so that when I recieved a rabbit as a gift when I was five I named it Jill. I hope Jill knew that that esteemed honour was because I loved her so much. Being on the tail end of thirteen grandchildren in the Healey family by a lot of years, I was always the tag along, but Jill always made time to include me. Most teenagers wouldn't do that. Except on this one occasion...Jill, Lisa my sister and I were all swimming at my Uncle Bob's pool with our other cousins Karen and Kathy and Tim. Jaws had just come out in theatres and all of them got to go that evening to see it. I was too young to go and cried about being left out and Jill promised to take me to see another movie. That is a lovely heart right there! Another thing I remenber about that day swimming at Uncle Bob's (probably too, because we have a lot of pictures taken from that day,) was how lovely my three older cousins Jill, Kathy and Karen looked in their bikinis. They all did these funny poses together on the diving board and I laughed so hard. My five year old self thought they looked like movie stars, and I vowed that when I got as old as they were, I would look like a bathing beauty in a bikini too- never happened- lol.

I remember when my mom would be driving Jill back to Port Franks from Sarnia and there was this old dilapitated cabin on the route there, and Jill would always say "that is a perfect fixer upper for me," We all got a kick out of that, but what I liked  best when she would say that was how she laughed at herself afterwards; she had such a great laugh. She got an apt. in Sarnia for a bit on Norman St., and she told my dad, Norm that she chose it because of his name, again she would laugh that laugh and I loved it. Younger kids watch so closely what the older kids did and I always watched Jill. I thought she was so beautiful on her wedding day and I loved it that she married Andy on Grandma and Grandpa Healey's wedding anniv. I remember how much that pleased my Grandma and that made me happy. Speaking of Andy, I remember the first time meeting him in Port Franks. It was at a Healey family gathering and he was playing catch with my cousin Mike. On the way home my parents were saying what a nice young man Andy was and how Uncle Gary thought a lot of him and my mom said" I bet he's the one" And he sure was. : )

Just one more quick memory. When they were living in Stratford and Jill was still quite young, she had a china horse collection. I was staying there for the week visiting, and I remember Jill coming out of her room crying because one of her horses legs had somehow gotten broken. She was crying and I felt so bad for her and thought that she looked pretty even when she was crying. I was likely four or so, and I am pretty sure she thought I was responsible for the breakage ( I wasn't ; ), but she never got angry with me or accused me outright. That is just how she was to me. I have lots of different memories, as I am sure you all do, because she was a special person. We were close as an extended family and then time moves on and we grow up and get busy with families of our own, but that love never changes or goes away.

May our love and memories keep her alive in our hearts God Bless all of you who loved her. She will be missed.

Rest in peace Jill,

Love,

Brenda

xo