Headstone Fundraiser for Jackie Deverell

Hi, my name is Lea and I’m ashamed to say I need help in honouring my mother.

In January 2018, my wonderful mum, Jacqueline Ann Deverell died at the age of 68.

Despite having 4 children, my siblings left me to pay for our mother’s funeral on my own. At the time, I’d just gone back to uni as a mature student and had recently become a single parent so was not financially stable. I amassed some debt in order to pay off her funeral bill which has taken me time to clear. I was lucky enough to have the help of my mum’s sisters for some of the bill for which I am eternally grateful.

However, now it’s been over 6 years since we lost mum and I still haven’t been able to get her a headstone.

With the help of my eldest sister, my ex husband and my nieces we have raised two thirds of the amount for mum’s headstone. But we need help with the final third.

I am ashamed to have to resort to asking for money but anyone who knew my mum knew what an amazingly generous woman she was. She’d give you her last £1 without question. She spent her entire adult life raising children, most of which she did as a single parent with no financial support from our fathers. She didn’t think she deserved welfare so I went to work with her at 5am to clean offices, nurseries and tower blocks so she could put food on the table. Everything we wore was second hand but we were always dressed immaculately, she took pride in her appearance, her home and her beautiful gardens.

I want to honour everything mum sacrificed for us by giving her a beautiful stone worthy of her. To mark her final resting place and know that I’ve done everything in my power to show my gratitude to her for the life she gave me.

Any donation would be greatly appreciated by me and my family.