A family tribute
JEAN Pockett was born in the old Castlemaine Hospital on 30 December, 1924, the middle child of John Alexander (Alec) and Edith Mary Blackmore of Toolangi.
Jean’s older sister Joyce (Wilson) and younger brother Keith predeceased her; Joyce in 1997 and Keith in 2006.
Jean’s parents moved to Toolangi around 1915 and much of Jean’s childhood and later life was spent in Toolangi.
The first family home was near the top of Spraggs Road and later a new house named “Carinya” was built close to the main road about one and a half miles west of the school and township.
From the very early days the family was closely associated with the Toolangi Methodist Church, Alec acting as lay preacher, and Edith as church organist for many years, an occupation which Jean took up later.
Alec worked in the local sawmills, and became a forest overseer with the (then) Forests Commission.
After leaving school, Jean lived for some time with her sister Joyce and her husband at Metcalf near Kyneton and worked on a large farm property called Granite Hill in the area.
Jean eventually returned to Toolangi to rejoin the family and her younger brother Keith.
In the mid-1940s she met a handsome young man named Bob Pockett at a dance in the old Chum Creek School hall.
Bob was working at Rimington’s Nursery at the time, near Toolangi.
Bob and Jean courted for some years in preparation for their life together.
Bob owned an old BSA motorbike with a sidecar and they enjoyed going shopping and taking drives up to the bush, particularly in the Murrindindi area with Jean’s brother Keith in his old Buick car.
Bob and Jean were married at the Methodist church in Healesville on 26 March, 1949 and had photographs taken by Healesville photographer Elton Fox in his studio at the Old Mechanics Institute.
It was the start of a wonderful togetherness that would take them through 65 years of marriage.
The newlyweds flew to Tasmania and back on a DC3 for their honeymoon and had a memorable time visiting such places as Port Arthur, Eaglehawk Neck, Mt Field, Russell Falls, Launceston and Hobart.
Married life began modestly enough in a small house at Rimington’s nursery, then Jean’s uncle, Mel Blackmore, organised a farm job for Bob at Yumbunga in Chum Creek, that came with a house.
Not long afterwards, they purchased a 24-acre property in Toolangi.
Jean was diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 1956 and took a few years to recover before in 1958 their first child, Valerie, arrived. David followed in 1960.
Jean happily settled into her role as a wife, mother and homemaker, in a larger house.
This was interspersed with her involvement in the local community, particularly the local Methodist Church and the annual church bazaar which was always a big event.
Jean also made the communion wine for church services in Toolangi.
Like her mother before her, she made the communion wine, taking her slightly old raspberry jam and boiling it into liquid form and straining the seeds.
She was involved with the Toolangi Red Cross, cricket club and CFA, Healesville Garden Club, Healesville Historical Society and spent many years in the mothers’ club of the Toolangi Primary School, later doing volunteer work at Healesville High School and working as a volunteer aide at Toolangi Primary School helping children learn to read.
Jean always enjoyed playing tennis, usually on one of the guesthouse tennis courts, including one court patronised earlier by C.J. Dennis.
Jean was a wonderful cook. She made fantastic biscuits and yoyos and was one of the best jam makers around.
For years her famous raspberry jam, made on the wood stove, sold like hotcakes at the Arden Tea Rooms in Toolangi.
Jean taught herself to play the organ and to read music, enjoyed listening to Gilbert and Sullivan and had a real fondness for the Welsh Male Choir, attending many of their concerts in Healesville.
Jean was overjoyed at the birth of each of her grandchildren, Kathryn and Matthew, and was affectionately known as Nanna. She loved them dearly and cherished the times she spent with them.
Jean was kind, independent and caring.
Very much her own person, she had definite opinions and if she had a view about something, then you would soon know it; though she would never do it in a hurtful way.
Soon after a major heart operation in 2001 she moved into a small unit with Valerie in Healesville to be closer to medical care, then into Monda Lodge and for the last 18 months of her life, to Healesville Aged Care.
Jean gently departed this life on Tuesday, 26 September, 2014 and is buried close by her parents and many members of her family at Healesville Cemetery.
Jean lived through a depression, a world war, and witnessed many changes to the world around her. She was much loved, much cared for, and lived a long and full life. And she will be greatly missed.
The family would like to thank most sincerely the many people who sent sympathy cards and condolences and all those who attended Jean’s funeral service.
