In loving memory of Janet Margaret Pearsall who sadly died on 13th September 2016.
Janet was born some 67 years ago in Southampton. Home, in Manor Road North, was a real family affair. Janet’s father, Jim, her mother, Marge and Nan all lived there. Throughout her school years she would, at first, walk to and fro the local junior school and in her secondary school she would have to go across town. Having achieved well at school, Janet applied for, and got, a place at a Teacher Training College in Clacton-on-Sea. In those days it was a long trip by train from Southampton to London, across London to Liverpool Street Station for a train to Clacton. Her tales of life in Clacton in the late 1960’s, always made us laugh. Janet’s first Job was in Clarendon Infants School, Tidworth, Wiltshire. Janet first met Michael 44 years ago. There was an agreement at the school she was working at that the younger staff were going to have a drink to celebrate Janet’s birthday. One of her colleagues was married to one of the soldiers in the same regiment as Michael, who was invited to the party in a local pub. So it was on this occasion that they first met and were married less than a year later, in August 1973. Their first posting was to Cyprus. It was here on their first wedding anniversary was celebrated sitting on suitcases waiting to be evacuated. Despite this inauspicious start married life continued and their daughter Claire was born, in Cyprus, in 1976. Over the next four years Janet’s parents both died and Michael left the army to become a civilian. A move to Dartford from Janet’s home city of Southampton was made, as Michael was working in London. It was in Dartford that Janet got back into teaching and was eventually to become a full time teacher, eventually to spend 17 years as the Deputy Head Teacher at St Albans Road Infant School. It was a twenty five year career in which Janet made a great number of acquaintances and a group of special friends who all continued to meet even after they retired. Janet was known as an outstanding teacher and cared about all the children she taught over the years, ensuring they reached their potential and fulfilled their own destinies.
What marked Janet out as a special person was her loyalty to the school and to her friends. This career was twinned with the pressure of motherhood as Claire grew from an infant to a young lady who went to Dartford Grammar School. It was also during this time that the family moved from Dartford to New Ash Green, then from New Ash Green to Hartley. As time for retirement came, there was a final move back to New Ash Green. The family home was shared with a succession of cats, a passion that Janet passed on to both Claire and James. James has a Grandma that adores him unreservedly, despite the number of times James dropped his pencil whilst doing his homework, or spilt crumbs on the carpet whilst eating biscuits.
The family has lost its wife, mother and grandmother and others have lost a much loved colleague and loyal friend.
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