Juliet’s life story. Juliet Gibbes was born March 6th 1966 to parents Charlie & Susie. Juliet was the middle child of three, her brothers were Ben and Bernard. A third brother Tom came along when Juliet as 13. Juliet’s early life was spent in Saffron Walden where she attended St Mary’s primary school. Juliet was childhood friends with Candida and Hayley and stayed in touch with their families ever since. At the age of 8 her family moved to Central London where she attended Barrow Hill and Quinton Kynaston schools. Juliet had a happy childhood. She was a very chatty and friendly child. Other children warmed to her and she was very good at building friendships, and acting as the peace keeper in the fights between her brothers. At school Juliet made good friends and played lots of sports, but the academic side of things did not appeal to her too much and she left school at 16. By this stage the family had moved to Pimlico and Juliet had forged an extensive social life in the area. She had a number of jobs and she lived and worked in the King William pub for a while in the early 1980s. Her life changed when she met Glynn – they were soon married and in February 1986 Juliet’s daughter Jenny was born. The marriage didn’t last long and Juliet was therefore a single parent but she took on that role with real relish. Juliet became friends with Anne Fox during this time and they forged a great friendship as single mums sitting on Anne’s balcony and putting the world to rights. Jenny, Tom and Anne’s children were playmates. Juliet wanted a better life for herself and Jenny and she started working for Boots pharmacists dispensing drugs. She quickly won several promotions and attained a number of qualifications in retailing, dispensing and pharmacy. Juliet took home a copy of a book on all the different drugs and she would read it avidly to help her to improve her knowledge. She also studied hard to gain the qualifications that she didn’t achieve at school and attained a number of GCSEs and A levels. Of course she was doing all of this whilst bringing up her daughter Jenny, and she was still living in Pimlico at the time. In this period Juliet also developed socially and intellectually and became more interested in politics, charities, support groups etc. Juliet was always very keen to help out those less fortunate than herself and offered a home to friends in need. Zoe, Sarah and Alan all stayed with Juliet during different periods of her time at Gloucester Street. Juliet & Jenny moved to Wigan in the late 1990s in search of a new life, where she made some good friends including Nicola, Sharon, Darren, Susan and Cheryl. She continued her studies and had dreams of being a lawyer, but the juggling of her parental role, and trying to earn a living, made that a very difficult process and the studies were frequently put on hold. Juliet often talked about completing her law degree, not because she wanted a degree, but because she was incredibly interested in law and human rights and wanted to study it and use it to help people and make the world a better place. Instead of studying at Manchester University, Juliet ended up working there for a while, before undertaking a number of customer facing roles in different organisations where her interpersonal skills were best utilised. In 2005 Juliet moved back to London to care for her mother Susie who was battling against the onset of Pancreatic cancer. Juliet lived with Susie during those final traumatic months, cooking, cleaning and caring for her. Juliet’s mother was a very private person and she was very happy to have her daughter back in London to make her life as bearable as possible. Whilst this was a very sad time Juliet truly appreciated the time she had with Susie and the special moments they shared. Juliet took on a huge amount during that time both physically and emotionally and Susie’s death hit her hard, but as ever she bounced back. She decided to stay in London and soon established herself as office manager at The Institute of Psychoanalysis. She used to joke that although they were extremely intelligent people they had no idea how to run an office or a commercial entity and Juliet very quickly whipped them into shape. Juliet loved this job and as always made good friends including Allie and Carol, and she also made friends with the Music company upstairs who would give her raffle prizes for the charities she supported. One of Juliet’s greatest strengths was her ability to make friends wherever she went. At Christmas time her flat was awash with cards from friends and relatives all over the world. Juliet met her closest friends Kiera, Maggie and Andrea in Pimlico more than 20 years ago and although they have lived in different locations and different countries the bond they forged in the early 1990’s has remained strong ever since, supporting each other through the ups and downs of life. But there are many more people whose lives Juliet touched. You only had to look at some of the beautiful things that people said about her on Facebook after her death was announced. She truly had the ability to touch people’s lives and make them feel special. Juliet also felt very strongly about the strength of family ties. She loved the bones of her daughter Jenny, although they didn’t always see eye to eye - like all mothers and daughters - and she wanted nothing more than for Jenny to be happy, healthy and settled in her new life in Canada. It is a great blessing that Jenny visited Juliet only a few weeks ago where they dined out with their father/grandfather Charlie and shared stories and laughs. She loved her brothers unequivocally. She was so happy for Tom when he married Kate earlier this year, and was desperately sad that she could not attend the wedding. She maintained contact with all of her cousins and second cousins both in the UK and overseas and other relatives. Juliet was the person who made sure that everyone was kept up to date on the goings on. Juliet’s second cousin Emma talked about Juliet’s contact with her family as being out of choice and not obligation. Juliet loved people and her family were at the heart of this philosophy. Juliet became more and more politically active as she got older. She was a card carrying member of the Labour Party, and she supported protest groups such as Amnesty and Greenpeace. She was also extremely active with a number of charities, including the Epilepsy society, Kiera’s charity LimbPower for amputees and latterly the MS society. She also fostered cats and kittens for the RSPCA. Juliet was an intelligent and passionate lady with a love of culture, literature, the arts and music. Her taste was eclectic with interests from Russian history to crime writing, classical music to Whitesnake. Juliet loved taking her niece and nephew to see Musicals and the West End. She was a member of the Natural History Museum and the Chelsea Physic Gardens, one of her favourite places in London. Juliet was an avid reader and movie watcher and one of her favourite things was watching a movie with a bottle of wine in the company of a good friend. At a time when Juliet was arguably as happy as she has ever been in work and in her social life she was diagnosed with MS. As with every other set back in her life she stood up to it and faced it head on with courage and pride, but eventually she had to concede her position at the Institute as she was not able to fulfill her responsibilities any more. This was incredibly hard for Juliet after seven years in a job she loved and this was a very low point for her, but she looked to the future, when many of us would not have had the strength. She often talked about taking on a fight, because she had strength and conviction, where others did not and this is one of the gifts that made Juliet special. Juliet’s MS was aggressive and before long she was housebound, but this didn’t stop Juliet. She joined disabled UK and other MS Support Groups. From these groups she built up a very strong network on line – initially to support herself but in time and in character it was Juliet providing the support to others – a constant theme in her life. She became good friends with Kathryn, Cath and Adrian, mutually supporting each other through the tough times and lifting each other’s spirits. In the weeks leading up to her death, Juliet had been in fine form, eating, drinking and socializing with her family and displaying all of the characteristics that they had come to expect from her – strong opinions on many different subjects and the ability to relate those articulately but at the same time allowing others to air their views - before Juliet told them that she was right. Juliet died on Friday 13th December at the tragically young age of 47.