Jacki Howe died this week at home in Kentisbeare, South Devon. She was the bubbliest, funniest, most caring and thoughtful friend in the world.
She and Tony lived until recently in the Mill House – beautifully converted from a working mill to a delightful home which doubled as a ‘commodious’ bed-and-breakfast venue.
Its size was one of the reasons why, when I once rang her in the middle of the night, Pella on tenterhooks and our hire car having been vandalised, I was confident there would be room for us to stay. The other reason for my confidence was that Tony and Jacki had been my very close friends since 1960-something. I was Best Man at their wedding in 1970.
Jacki set very high standards in civility, inter-personal warmth and a professional’s attention to detail. She had a taste for fine workmanship, whether expressed in interior design, household furnishing, food, collectables, or flowers and gardens. She loved her own garden which, at all times of the year, seemed to be colourful and immaculate.
She was one of those hosts who would unfailingly include a bedside posy or two in the room allocated to a visitor.
When Jacki and Tony moved from the Mill House to the smaller place up the hill, their new home soon displayed all the style and taste for which they were known. Among other things, the move meant that Jacki had more time for her shop in Exmouth which gave public and commercial expression to some of her sensibilities.
Jacki and Tony provided the centrepiece or fulcrum for a Gregory-family-and-friends reunion in 2011, a highlight of which was an international cricket challenge held at the Kentisbeare Cricket Club.
The challenge match pitted a UK family side against one from the Southern Hemisphere (Australia and Hong Kong).
In her own immediate family Jacki knew challenges and had a share of misfortune that seemed disproportionate, given the way she always smiled on the world. She had bladder cancer and battled against the odds for the last year of her life.
Catherine – Jacki and Tony’s daughter – was home to help out at the end.
Jacki’s warmth and vitality will be sorely missed by all who knew her. May she rest in peace.
