Remembering Elspeth Jones
On Friday 24th November I received the sad news that Elspeth Jones, Speak Out Leader, had passed away. My deepest sympathies go to Bill (her twin brother), her family, friends, and colleagues at this difficult time.
In my role supporting the Learning Disability Partnership Boards, I had worked alongside Elspeth, as part of the Learning Disability Partnership Board, for just short of 10 years, originally with Cambridgeshire Alliance for Independent Living, and then with Healthwatch Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
Elspeth was a joy to work with, whether she was telling someone they were right, or (more likely) wrong, or pointing out a mistake I had made.
Elspeth had an incredible sense of wit although she would describe it as sarcasm. I’d say that Elspeth’s wit, or sarcasm, was only ever used to comment, both negatively and positively, on something in a humorous way but that the feedback was noted by all.
One of my favourite memories of Elspeth was when the Learning Disability Partnership Board was receiving a presentation, at the end of which it was being asked to make a recommendation.
Presenter: Proposal A - Brief outline
Proposal B - Brief outline
Proposal C - Brief outline. Detail. More detail.
Elspeth: "So, you want us to recommend C as you’ve given us no detail about the others. No."
Learning Disability Partnership Board: Unanimous vote to not recommend any of the proposals.
When I shared with my colleagues about Elspeth’s passing, one of them messaged me saying “Elspeth was a shining light and brought a lot of fun to meetings”.
Another colleague said, “Elspeth was a great character, so passionate and unique”.
These are sentiments that I completely agree with.
I have a tradition that when someone I know - family, friend, colleague – passes away, I light a candle for them.
