VAL Jeans’ community work, contributions and kindness have been recalled fondly after her death last month.
She died, aged 82, at the Epworth Hospital in Melbourne on March 1 after a career in nursing, midwifery and child welfare and decades of community service.
Mrs Jeans’ birth was the first of many bumpy trips down country roads.
Friend Deb Porteous documented her story for a Tooleybuc newsletter, where she recalled the details of her birth with humour.
“Mum ‘put the sheet out’ (a handy way to communicate before mobile phones) and although Dad saw it he didn’t rush in, so consequently I was born at a neighbour’s house on the way to the hospital.
“The lady down the road delivered me.”
She was born in Horsham to Mavis Burkhart and Alan Tonkin on May 28, 1940.
She grew up on the family sheep and grain property in Kalkee and spent her childhood milking cows and feeding chooks.
She attended Wail East Primary School and later Horsham High School.
Mrs Jeans began a nursing career at Wimmera Base Hospital at 16.
She went on to study midwifery at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne and took nursing roles in Western Australia and New Zealand.
She then moved into infant welfare and found herself posted to Swan Hill.
Just before her arrival in Swan Hill, her car broke down and Norm Jeans luckily found her and rendered assistance.
Her first maternal and child health clinic was in Boundary Bend, where she supported families across the region, including Nyah West and Koraleigh.
In 1968 she embarked on a new adventure with her sister and left by boat for India, from where they made a 100-day bus trip to England through Iraq and Iran, Cold War Turkey and back through Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Along the way we got to stop and talk to locals and at night we had to find our own accommodation and ate street food,” Mrs Jeans later told Mrs Porteous.
On arriving in England, she found nursing work and spent her earnings touring Europe and Great Britain.
She returned to Swan Hill as a midwife at Swan Hill Hospital.
A romance blossomed with her roadside rescuer Mr Jeans and the two married and set about creating a life together with his son Gary.
She joined the Swan Hill branch of Business Professional Women about this time.
The couple also raised three daughters, Kylie (born in 1970), Robyn (1971) and Vicki (1973).
After a period as a homemaker, Mrs Jeans spent 29 years serving Buloke Shire as a maternal and child health nurse, but family recall that she was often much more than that.
Daughter Vicki remembered the social services her mother voluntarily provided across the region.
“She worked out of centres across Buloke Shire but it was nothing for her to call into farms across the region as well,” she said.
“She would deliver presents at Christmas time to families who might be doing it tough, and it was not unusual for people to spend Christmas with us who might otherwise spend it alone.
“Throughout the years, she gave us much to be proud of and was a wonderful role model to our family.”
Mrs Jeans’ list of voluntary roles is extensive.
She visited Swan Hill hospital patients, took leadership roles in organisations including BPW, Probus, Swan Hill North Primary School parent committees, the Association of Independent Retirees and Wish Foundation, and was a lifelong member of the Uniting Church.
Mrs Jeans holds the record as the longest-serving Swan Hill BPW member, more than 50 years, in roles including president and treasurer.
She was a supporter of refugees in the region and fostered children throughout her life.
After her beloved husband died and her children relocated for work, she met Keith Walters and the pair enjoyed many trips together and shared a home in Swan Hill.
She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer about 12 months ago.
