Isca Allemanders are very sad to say ‘farewell’ to a much loved and long-standing member of our club. Jill Petty was diagnosed with a brain tumour in July last year, but appeared to be making good progress after surgery and radiotherapy, and was anticipating returning to square dancing when she was strong enough. However, in March this year, a routine scan showed five more tumours, for which there was no realistic treatment; her body quickly weakened and she peacefully passed away on 5th June. About a hundred friends, including many square dancers from many different clubs, attended a service followed by a “teaparty” to celebrate her life. It was even arranged for several tips and singing calls to be played to show her non-dancing friends and family what square dancing looked like, and hopefully appreciate why she enjoyed it so much. Jill and her husband John were introduced to square dancing at Shirts and Skirts in Ipswich in 1977, but a move to Devizes enforced a pause of nearly twenty years whilst they participated in folk dancing instead. Eventually, in 1996 they persuaded a group of folk dancers to try squares and they learnt together using some Paul Bristow singing calls on tape. With help from Corinium Squares and Peter Wright they graduated and then formed Trailblazers. They also joined Thornbury and Centre Squares during the “Andrew” years and learnt Plus and A. Once they’d retired from work, they moved to Exmouth, joining Isca and Packhorse Squares. As they had collected a large amount of recorded A material, they formed a new club called Zigzags. Meanwhile, in their spare time, they travelled to Plymouth to learn C1 with C-siders.They enjoyed teaching and more recently. with Jeremy Child, they formed a U3A group in Exmouth, resulting in a graduation at Isca in 2016. Some of the dancers went on to form Otter Squares and several now dance A. Jill had always enjoyed travelling so they notched up eight visits to Lytham as well as numerous weekends, Saturday dances and a trip to the 2000 European Convention. Jill was a knowledgeable, experienced dancer, who was an asset to any square she joined. She will be much missed by all her friends far and wide. ISCA ALLEMANDERS, EXETER

Jill was an early adopter of technology (a very e-savvy grandmother) so we are confident she would have liked the idea of this website tribute. Please do contribute your stories, pictures, thoughts and even videos or music to share your memories. Many thanks from John, Caroline, Hilary, Hannah and Oliver.

Welcome and Opening Words by Martin Welcome to this special ceremony of thanksgiving for Jill. My name is Martin and it is an honour to celebrate Jill’s life with you today and to stand alongside you all as we say our final farewell to this adventurous, resourceful, creative, competitive, organised, sociable, loving, wonderful woman. We have come together from different places, and we may be at different stages on our own journey through life. We may have our own beliefs and so may look at life, and death, in different ways. But there is one thing we all have in common, our lives have been touched and enriched by the life of Jill. So, we have come together to be reminded of her life and character. To recall and relive some special memories and to be thankful. There may be smiles, there may be tears. We shouldn’t be afraid of either. We are surrounded by a love that is stronger than grief, and even death itself. A love so powerful that some of us dare to call the love God, and God “Love”. In many ways, this is the last loving thing we can do for Jill, so we are doing much more than paying our last respects, we are actually playing Jill the greatest compliment. Thank you for being here. We are gathered here today to be gently reminded that there is a time to hold on, and a time to let go. We are gathered here today - not only to grieve the loss of Jill but to also give thanks for her life and her companionship. We are gathered here today - not only to mourn over how different our lives will be without her, but to give thanks for how full life was when she was with us. We are gathered here today - not only to recall the might-have-beens and mistakes of the past, but to forgive and to be forgiven. We are gathered here today to give and receive compassion, and comfort. May this ceremony be a source of hope and healing for us all.