Jackie Morgan 9th March 1946 - 17th October 2014

New York is one of the most famous cities in the world and was named
twice, Marie Lucienne Jacqueline Morgan was a magnificent person and
was therefore named three times, but she always preferred to be
called Jackie. She was the first born daughter of her French
Canadian father, Joseph Pierre Edouard Roland Laramee and her English
rose of a mother Irene Laramee nee Kershaw. Shortly after Jackie was
born in Birstall West Yorkshire, the family set sail to seek a new
life in Montreal Canada where Irene gave birth to her eldest son
Pierre and daughters Micheline and Christine to complete their family
tree. Will you still love me tomorrow was Jackie's favourite song
and the resounding reply from all who knew her was, yes and the day
after, and the day after that until we ourselves run out of time.
This eulogy will therefore have a musical theme befitting of Jackie
the DANCING QUEEN who is no doubt now teaching the angels a step or two.

HOMEWORD BOUND - By Simon & Garfunkel
From Montreal the homeland was calling and Pierre, Irene and the 4 children returned to the UK to re-settle in Birstall for the foreseeable future. Jackie was
soundly educated at St John Fishers School in Dewsbury, and with her teenage years approaching, Jackie began to hone her dancing skills with her bedroom door handle, ably accompanied by the Allisons greatest hit ARE YOU SURE
Regular week-end visits to local dance venues with Barbara Grace and other
friends polished Jackie's dancing style and she fast became the LEADER OF THE PACK with her superb rhythm and timing.

OUT OF TIME - By Chris Farlow
Those teenage years were both exciting and difficult times for Jackie, Pierre and Irene's marriage had run OUT OF TIME.
and both her parents had developed relationships with new partners.
Paradoxically this was a great blessing, because this gave Jackie the opportunity to see close up how Bill and Irene Hallas gave their all to building loving family relationships which have lasted a lifetime, and are clearly evident here today.
Jackie adored her mum and loving father figure Bill, as much as it was humanly possible. Now lets fast rewind to the swinging sixties.

PLEASE PLEASE ME- By The Beatles
The Beatles first no 1 was about the time that Jackie first met Peter, and what a first meeting that was. Otherwise known as the Clash of the Titans. The venue was the Black Tulip in Dewsbury which was the groovy place to be for wall to wall juke box sounds of the sixties,and for aspiring Romeo's to search for that GROOVY KIND OF LOVE. Peter was about to leave the Black Tulip when he bumped into Jackie who was having a quiet drink with Barbara Grace in the entrance to the bar. Peter's chat up line was simply this “Hi gorgeous, I haven't seen you here before, where are you from?” Jackie gave Peter that beaming smile that would light up a room and said,
“12,Hot Lane, Hell”then quickly returned to her lively conversation with Barbara,
This was the start of a flourishing, feisty but loving courtship that was about to last a
lifetime.

TEENAGER IN LOVE - By Marty Wilde
The courtship included magical memories of camping holidays with Irene & Bill, Jackie,Peter, Pierre, Micheline and Christine, the first holiday being the
most memorable for its audacious simplicity. The family arrived in Filey with 2 blow up igloo tents and only 1 double camping bed for Bill & Irene. Resourceful Irene sowed double sheets together and consigned, Peter, Jackie and her siblings to the local farm to acquire vast quantities of mattress filling, otherwise know as straw. They were then given strict instructions to sleep side by side with Jackie facing due north, Peter facing due south with the siblings sandwiched in between.
Nature has determined that people do move in their sleep and nowhere in this verbal contract was there any mention of surreptitious cuddling, so a nod was as good as a wink to a blind man SHAKING ALL OVER

SHE LOVES YOU - By The Beatles
And Peter loved Jackie by the greatest measure of depth and time that anyone can IMAGINE. She had the blueprint for the “perfect wife and mum” vibrant personality, beauty, dignity,humility, honesty but above all else, her enormous LOVING FEELING towards her family and anyone in need of love and care. There was no way on God's earth that Peter was going to let this little gem go to a less deserving candidate, and their romance sped from engagement to marriage at St Michaels Church Thornhill in 1967. It was a great marriage service, things just seemed to kick off at the reception, Peter thinks its because he wanted to be on the
photographs, but Jackie's smile recognises yet again one of Peter's old worn out jokes. The honeymoon was not a glitzy affair, Peter borrowed £25 from his Dad and drove Jackie to Great Yarmouth in a £50 Morris Minor with 100,000 miles on
the clock. The car was suitably attired in toilet paper, tin cans, baby's potties and sophisticated graffiti. The Morgans were young but fashionable and such art décor for the honeymoon car seemed to be in vogue at the time. Alas the Morris Minor's big end began to fail on the start of the return journey home, this cost an extra 5 hours travelling time, 1 gallon of oil and 5 punnets of strawberries to cover their evening meal arrangements.

BABYLOVE - By The Supremes
Jackie and Peter's first home was a 2 up and 1 down terraced house in Cross Park Street Batley. The 1 down was a multi functional kitchen, dining, lounge and bathroom, all conveniently situated in the same room. This was quite a bespoke area of Batley where the toilets where supplied as a separate detached building some 20 metres from the main abode. Jackie and Peter had the only tin bath on the street and when neighbours called to borrow the tin bath, Jackie used to tease Peter's delusion of grandeur that it felt like they were living on Nob Hill.
Putting today's speed dating to shame, Jackie and Peter became proud parents of their only son Dean in the same year of their marriage. This is when Jackie's
natural mothering instincts blossomed to full bloom, countless teething nights were shared with Peter, exchanging elbows to the ribs with the uncertainty of whose turn it was to get up next. Jackie would also make regular trips to the Rag & Bone man to sell worn out clothes for a shilling or two, but this was not rags to riches story, it was to provide fish fingers, chips and peas for the next family meal. Like mother like daughter, here was her mum's resourcefulness shining through loud and clear.

TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING - By Bob Dylan
Exciting times, in 1969 Jackie & Peter moved to 106 Priory way Mirfield, their first
semi-detached new home and the start of their home building decision making escapades, which would at times exercise one of their renowned feisty but loving exchanges. Jackie and Peter would often be country miles apart when joint decisions were required to improve their home or even their own appearance.
Man woman, same world different planet, but compromise decisions were always made once Jackie with her perennial smile was able to help Peter to recognise
and set aside the major flaws in his ideas. Jackie and Peter became proud parents again when Rebecca was born in 1973 complete with 2 front teeth. Dean and Rebecca were both well educated at Mirfield Schools,with complementary loving home schooling, to instil the values for them to grow into the rounded young adults they eventually became. Jackie loved Dean and Rebecca in equal immeasurable measures and bursted with pride at their academic and life achievements.

HARD DAYS NIGHT - By The Beatles
Money was tight in the early days and Jackie's high work ethic came to the fore when she became a nursing auxiliary at North Bierley Hospital, working night shifts
caring for elderly patients. This not only helped to supplement the family income but it was extremely enriching for Jackie who was privileged to be able to serve those in most need of her natural caring and nurturing instincts. In 1982 Jackie & Peter
moved to their current address 8 Lady Heton Drive and Jackie developed her caring vocation with the local authority as a visiting warden to the elderly residents of Mirfield. It was rapidly becoming clear that loving, nurturing and caring was in Jackie's veins, bones and DNA

WE CAN WORK IT OUT - By The Beatles
Jackie & Peter joined
Dewsbury Squash Club and enjoyed memorable social events during its hey day
This gave Jackie and Peter some respite from their respective HARD DAYS NIGHTS with keenly fought squash games to exercise their bodies. Jackie of course
had to admonish Peter on some of the social evenings for over exercising his liver. The Squash Club Members week-end visit to the German Wine Festival was a treasure trove of hilarious incidents which will be featured in Peter's Eulogy at some future date.

CAN'T BUY ME LOVE - By The Beatles
You cannot buy love, but Jackie pursued a life long holy grail ambition to buy anything at the right price. She had a Phd in shopping with distinctions in markets,
car boot sales and ladies clothes. Jackie could shop until Peter dropped, he would dutifully drag himself around these places bleating “Men are not designed for this” . Sometimes Jackie and Peter would do what most couples do in these fraught
circumstances, they fell out. But not for too long, Jackie's forgiving beaming smile always rescued the day if not Peter's pocket.

WALKING BACK TO HAPPINESS - BY Helen Shapiro
In the mid 90's Jackie bumped into Barbara Sullivan nee Grace and her teenage friendship became re-kindled after 30 years. Their teenage dancing years were
revived through regular rock and roll nights and week-ends, to journey again through the great musical era of the 50's and 60's being enjoyed again by 50 and 60 year olds, some of which were attired in full teddy boy & girl regalia. It was a sight to behold seeing elderly teddy boys accidentally bumping into each other on the dance floor, exchanging apologies rather than the fisticuffs of the bygone age when you may have been asked to COME OUTSIDE.

HALFWAY TO PARADISE - By Billy Fury
Jackie's family, home and particularly her garden was her paradise, she was living life to the full and both Jackie and Peter were starting to reap the benefits of
their hard work and career commitments. World travel beckoned and Jackie has tremendously fond memories of travel to the far corners of the globe particularly with very special friends, Peter and Anne Woollin. Cruising had become an annual event, and Jackie thoroughly enjoyed the dining experience and meeting new friends, with the sole exception of the Captain. Peter would always politely decline the invite to eat at the Captains table. He used to say “am not paying all this money for a cruise to end up eating with the crew” .Jackie smiles again at another worn out joke from Peter.

MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS - By Perry Como

In year 2000 Jackie joined the Happy Memories Group at St Andrews Church Mirfield to support elderly residents and their carers whose lives were blighted with
various forms of dementia. She of course led all the dancing and singing activities with her infectious vibrant enthusiasm. Such was her caring nature that Margaret Brammer who had no local family, enjoyed a Morgan Christmas dinner for 3 years before she was admitted to a nursing home. The Happy Memories Group used to hold spring an autumn fair fund raising events at St Andrews Church, and Peter promised to call in one Saturday lunch time to support the event.Jackie then gave Peter strict instructions to dress smartly and not scruffily as could be his want.
Peter duly arrived at mid-day wearing a full dinner suit, red cummerbund and red bow tie. Jackie was ALL SHOOK UP but her beaming smile then lit up the whole room.

TAKE GOOD CARE OF MY BABY - By Bobby Vee
In November 2013, Jackie was diagnosed with bladder cancer followed by a
surgical operation to remove the affected organs in February 2014, In March this year she was given all clear histology results. however secondary cancers returned and Jackie lost her tenacious struggle for life at Kirkwood Hospice on the 17th
October 2014. Even during these darkest moments, Jackie never lost her feisty wit and wisdom. When Peter was trying to manage her pain from home, she asked for emergency pain killers, Peter then asked Jackie to describe her pain on a scale of 1 to 10, Jackie responded with an 8. Peter then said “Jackie why didn't you tell me you had pain before it reached 8” Jackie replied “well put me down for a 6 then”.
Jackie, Peter and Rebecca are eternally indebted to the angels of Kirkwood Hospice for their enormous nursing and caring contribution to Jackie and her families
needs during the terminal illness. Jackie wants to pass on her unremitting love and appreciation for all the cards and visits she received during the last several months, and she wants family friends and neighbours to celebrate with gusto her life and her
achievements, Jackie knows how deeply Peter and Rebecca loved and cared for her, and they too want to share these feelings with everyone privileged to have had their lives touched by their acquaintance with Jackie.

LOVE IS ALL AROUND. - By The Troggs
This song encapsulates Peter''s final message.Jackie was a truly Inspirational Wife, Inspirational Mum and Inspirational Carer. Please God, TAKE GOOD CARE OF MY BABY and God Bless everyone.

Peter Morgan 27th October 2014