In Memoriam
We have just said goodbye to a wonderful lady – Jane Chapman. Jane saw us perform in her home town of Sucina in 2005 and was hooked on barbershop. She joined the Lead Section of the chorus in January 2006 with friends, Mags Hudson, Cynthia Sherry, Sheila Morton and Barbara Bowers, and began her barbershop journey. Jane was a real character and, according to Section Leader, Linda Coats, there was never a dull moment sharing a room with Jane at Convention. Linda recalls when we won our first gold medal on our home turf in 2011: “Jane woke up with her hair all askew, in her nightie, and I noticed that she still had her gold medal around her neck.” when Linda pointed it out to Jane, she remarked “Of course, after all that hard work to win it, I’m not taking it off!”.
We were all aware of Jane’s battle with an illness that was no fault of her own but, despite being really poorly at times, she would turn up for chorus rehearsal, no matter what, and we never once heard her complain. It was a unanimous decision to award Jane ‘Barbershopper of the Year’ in December 2012 – nobody deserved it more!
We will miss our ray of sunshine on the risers and we hope that our memorial service by the Mar Menor was up to your exacting standards, Jane. No doubt you will be keeping them in line in the celestial chorus.
The poems that were read out today can be downloaded here:
