Jean Wilson is my great-grandmother who was born on the 27th of December 1909. She is described to be a very strong woman who was able to deal with a lot of adversity. She was wise and expressed herself usually through poetry in front of her family.

Jean was born into a large family and grew up on a large farm in the remote backcountry of Taihape. She had six siblings, three sisters ( Milly, Molly, and Tup ) and two brothers ( Ian and Ron being twins, and Bob )making her the seventh child. She and her siblings rode horses to school and had a magpie friend who greeted them when they were departing. Sadly, her mother was killed in a level crossing - train - accident when she was in her late teens. She remained on at the Taihape farm to work on the farm and look after her father and younger siblings.

When Jean grew older she had five of her children during World War Two. They were living in Scotland, during those times and was and were farming on the Isle of Islay. Because of the war, they were directed to grow lots of different crops to supply a country at war. It was hard on her to take care of her large family without her husband as well.

When the family came back to New Zealand in 1950 they developed a King Country hill farm. Her husband Hector died in 1956 due to a blood clot which is a gene that runs in that side of the family ( In me too ). Jean was left to run a large farm while bringing up now six children, at this point, my grandfather was only four. Her eldest daughters were in charge of taking care of the younger ones, just to help her out.

Jean Wilson was a Nana to Keren ( My auntie ) and Melissa ( My mum ) and was very proud of it. It was not unusual to see her out of the field playing rugby with her granddaughters at eighty. She was bold and fearless and determined, one of the reasons why my mother decided to name Arihia ( me ) after her, Jean being her middle name.

Jean Wilson, unfortunately, passed away on September 25th, 2002, only a few years before her great-grandchildren were born. She simply passed away due to old age and was 92, which was very old for that generation. Even though she had several strokes in her lifetime she pushed through them and survived, she was a very memorable woman in our family tree.