Jean McEwen, best known for her role as vice convener of Forfar hospice charity Lippen Care, has passed away aged 82.
For more than two decades, the retired teacher was involved with the charity that helped to fund the building of Strathmore Hospice.
Jean was born on June 11, 1942 to parents Robert and Ella Horne at the former Fyffe Jamieson Hospital in Forfar. She was the couple’s only child.
Nursing staff had actually told Jean’s parents that she might not last the night because she was a premature baby.
Her daughter Elspeth said: “As she was premature, they didn’t have a name picked out for her.
“A nurse told them that they should choose a name for her and so her placeholder name was Jean.
“After she thrived and time went on, it was decided she should be named after two relatives – Catherine and Jane, but Jean stuck!
“A lot of people in Forfar knew her as Jean, but when she lived in Perth and Glasgow, she was known as Catherine!”
When Jean was a young girl the family moved to Perth for a few years and she attended the Western District school, which became known as Craigie Primary.
Later Jean’s parents moved again to Glasgow, due to her dad’s work as a railway inspector, and she attended Queen’s Park secondary school.
Elspeth revealed that her mum’s dream was to play the piano professionally as a career.
But, unfortunately at that time, gaining the qualifications for that and sitting the exams was just too costly.
“My mum’s dad became very ill when she was a teenager and passed away in 1962,” Elspeth said.
“My mum had enrolled at Jordanhill teacher training college to get a good job as a primary school teacher to support her parents.
“It’s sad her dad didn’t see her graduate.”
Elspeth continued: “She was a very kind and nurturing person so she really enjoyed being a teacher.
“She really found her calling because she had such a good teaching career.”
After graduating from Jordanhill in June 1963, her first teaching post was at St. James’ Primary School in Glasgow’s East End.
And when she moved to East Kilbride, she secured a teaching job at Long Calderwood Primary School.
Jean met her future husband Allistair at The Plaza dance hall in Glasgow in September 1963 and the couple were married at Queen’s Park High Church (now Crosshill Queen’s Park Church) in 1965.
The couple were then together for the next 53 years until Allistair passed away from cancer in 2018.
In the early years of their marriage, Jean and Allistair lived in East Kilbride when they welcomed their only child, a daughter Elspeth, in 1969.
Elspeth said: “When I was quite small my mum was offered a job at a school in Craichie in Angus.
“She and dad thought it would be nice for me to grow up where mum had grown up herself.
“So, we moved to Craichie and we lived there for a number of years until I was of school age.
“We moved to Forfar in around 1973.
“Mum then got a job at Langlands Primary School.
“She started off as a regular class teacher but then she became really interested in helping children who had dyslexia.
“This then became a massive part of her life.
“She did some extra training and got qualifications so she could help dyslexic children with their reading.
“Mum really loved doing that and she found her niche.
“It was really important to her and she was so proud when the children she helped went on to have good careers despite a difficult start to their education.”
Jean, who was also a Sunday school teacher, retired in 2002.
But she ended up doing some supply teaching work for a while because she loved working with children.
When she finally gave up teaching, Jean became more involved in another project.
In 1993 she was a member of the initial steering group which would eventually become Forfar hospice charity, Lippen Care.
Lippen Care raised a million pounds to build and equip the Strathmore Hospice at Whitehills Health and Community Care Centre.
With the announcement of a new community health centre at Whitehills, the group embarked on several years of fundraising to build a hospice as part of the project.
The hospice is a partnership with the NHS, which funds and provides nursing and medical care.
The Strathmore Hospice accepted its first terminally ill patient in April 2005 and was officially opened in December of that year.
Since then, a hard-working committee has continued to raise funds to support those facing their final days.
Elspeth said: “My mum had been saying for a long time there was inadequate provision for proper end of life care for the community in Angus.
“So, she went along to the initial meetings to see how this could be developed.
“That’s how she got involved with Lippen Care.
“She joined the original executive committee and put her energy into finding ways to raise funds to build the hospice.
“For the past 25 years my mum worked with them and she was still vice convener when she died.
“My mum went from having a passion for teaching to being passionate about the development of the hospice.
“She did whatever she could to help Lippen Care meet its goals.
“She supported the fundraising events like the coffee mornings, sponsored walks and the bingo teas.
“I think she was never happier than when she was in the middle of it all.”
Last year Jean enjoyed going on holiday to Orkney with Elspeth.
She also spent time enjoying her hobbies which included flower arranging and knitting.
Jean, who had been unwell for some time, was diagnosed with cancer, and passed away on June 12 this year.
Her funeral service took place at Parkgrove Crematorium in the village of Friockheim.
Family and friends who attended the funeral generously donated the sum of £800 for Lippen Care funds.
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