I am very sad to hear of Jane's death. I was Jane's tutor at UTS in 2010 and she was a marvellous writer. I still have the manuscript of her short novel How to make a B-Grade Film - which as I told her was very witty and, I thought very publishable.(Not something I say a lot.) She was also an outstanding person, warm, wry, politically committed, empathetic, a stand out student in fact. Someone I remembered vividly- and I have had a great many students. We arranged to meet a year or so later when I emailed her asking how she was, but it sadly never happened. She wanted to enter the ms for a competition. Please accept my deepest sympathy to friends and family for the loss of this lovely woman.
Years ago, I was in Adelaide for a conference that coincided with the performance of Jane's play. As I was leaving the conference I spontaneously asked the person I happened to be with if she wanted to come to a play. She agreed and we sat outdoors savouring the energy of the Adelaide Fringe. As we walked back to our respective hotels, she told me that attending Jane's play would always be significant. Then, she confided that her partner had recently been killed in a car accident. Of course, had I known that the centrepiece of Jane's work was a car accident and that this person had endured this tragedy I would never have extended the invitation. As you can probably tell, I can't remember this person's name. Nor would I recognise her again. Thank you Jane on her behalf. You will be greatly missed by the Stephens family.
Jane was one of the workers in the Community Mental Health Project set up by Michael White in the 1980s. As a fellow worker working our way through difficult issues and circumstances we all valued her solid, sensible, humorous contributions to our discussions as much as I'm sure the women she actually worked with, in the 'Power to our Journeys' group, valued her calm, reassuring, creamy chocolate skin manner. She made a difference.
I am very sad to hear of Jane's death. I was Jane's tutor at UTS in 2010 and she was a marvellous writer. I still have the manuscript of her short novel How to make a B-Grade Film - which as I told her was very witty and, I thought very publishable.(Not something I say a lot.) She was also an outstanding person, warm, wry, politically committed, empathetic, a stand out student in fact. Someone I remembered vividly- and I have had a great many students. We arranged to meet a year or so later when I emailed her asking how she was, but it sadly never happened. She wanted to enter the ms for a competition. Please accept my deepest sympathy to friends and family for the loss of this lovely woman.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, I was in Adelaide for a conference that coincided with the performance of Jane's play. As I was leaving the conference I spontaneously asked the person I happened to be with if she wanted to come to a play. She agreed and we sat outdoors savouring the energy of the Adelaide Fringe. As we walked back to our respective hotels, she told me that attending Jane's play would always be significant. Then, she confided that her partner had recently been killed in a car accident. Of course, had I known that the centrepiece of Jane's work was a car accident and that this person had endured this tragedy I would never have extended the invitation. As you can probably tell, I can't remember this person's name. Nor would I recognise her again. Thank you Jane on her behalf. You will be greatly missed by the Stephens family.
ReplyDeleteJane was one of the workers in the Community Mental Health Project set up by Michael White in the 1980s. As a fellow worker working our way through difficult issues and circumstances we all valued her solid, sensible, humorous contributions to our discussions as much as I'm sure the women she actually worked with, in the 'Power to our Journeys' group, valued her calm, reassuring, creamy chocolate skin manner. She made a difference.
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