I am so very sad to hear the news of Jane's death, albeit rather after the event. I am a childhood friend of Nigel's and met Jane a good few times. She and Nigel stayed with us at our home in Dorset.  My wife was acquainted with Jane as a fellow University of Bristol undergraduate long before we met. I have been trying to message Nigel without success and would really love to make contact again if possible. My address and email have not changed for twenty five years.

I miss my darling friend so much…. Just when I think oh I must tell Janers or phone I remember I can’t. 
You are always with me ol pal and will never leave
All my love as ever
Mary xxxx

Always lovely to meet up at family weddings and cousins walks. Jane will be sadly missed when we next meet up. 

Our heartfelt condolences to Nigel, Sally, Philip and all the family.  It's so hard to believe that Jane is no longer with us. We were so glad to rekindle our contact with Jane and all of you in recent years at cousins walks and family celebrations including Denis and Vera's Diamond Wedding Anniversary and various weddings. We feel bereft that we will no longer see Jane's friendly, smiling face again. We know she has been a tower of strength within your family for many years and will be sorely missed. Sending much love to you all at this sad time, Helen  and Tessa xxx 

I am terribly sad and shocked to lose our precious Jane. I love her, always have and always will. I have nothing but appreciation and gratitude for having had her in my life.

Growing up with Jane and sharing so much together, I am partly who I am today because of our friendship. I can't ever remember falling out with her or feeling resentful or angry. We had a wonderful, uncomplicated relationship. She was very special.

From the age of about 8, when we first met, I thought of her as really clever and really interesting and interested in the world.

Thank you Jane for the long conversations as we walked to school, for the many hours we spent at the train station doing our homework together, the midnight feasts at Girl Guide camp, introducing me to Smiley ( one of my first loves), for reconnecting with me once you knew I too lived in the US, for sharing our love of our dogs and caring for our elderly parents while living far away from them.

I looked forward to more aging with you and am grateful that we did as much reminiscing as we did, not knowing, time together would end so soon. 

Know you will always be in my heart Jane. Please know Nigel, Sally and Phil, you and your families are always welcome, wherever I am. Jane leaves behind her a legacy of love and connection, a testament to a live well lived. XX

Unlike anyone else we know all our memories of Jane are connected with holidays and all are happy ones.  We only ever met when Jane and Nigel were on holiday and visiting us, or when we were on holiday visiting them, or when we were all on holiday as travelling companions. This has meant meeting up in Northumberland, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Suffolk, Surrey, London, more recently North Wales.  They turned up the day we moved into our fixer upper in June 2005.  The removal men were still busy and Jane started stripping wallpaper! On two occasions we visited them in Houston, but we also travelled together round different parts of the country - Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California.  I have happy memories from a villa they rented in Miramar years ago, and most recently that wonderful trip through Russia, Mongolia and China ending up in our youngest son’s apartment in Shanghai to meet his wife and little boy.   Jane and Peter both liked planning trips (she will always be Pete’s spreadsheet queen) so we would end up having the most wonderful and particular e-mail exchanges arranging to meet (these are all real) outside the Argonaut Hotel in San Francisco (where Jane and Nigel arrived to pick us up absolutely on time in a hire car); at reception in The Flamingo in Vegas (a touch of Scorsese) and The Vespa in Saint Petersburg (definitely Le Carre), fretting about loose ends at a taxi rank outside Central Station in Beijing (it was very hot and we were hi-jacked by an English speaking taxi driver - expensive but helpful).  Booze and daft card games, trains, RV's. hire cars, not-speaking-the-language, lovely meals (even the unexpected and enormous stuffed carp in Siberia), and quiet moments, sitting one morning at a picnic table in a suddenly empty and utterly silent red dirt Monument Valley RV park, or gently wandering through the redwoods. 
Some of our most carefree memories.  We feel very fortunate, and very sad, and we'll miss her a good deal.


Aly and I are shocked and saddened at Jane's passing.  She was a kind and remarkable women and we are blessed to have had the opportunity to know her and share holidays and get togethers when she and Nigel came to California.  We will hold those memories in our hearts always.

I first met Jane in 1979 when I was a young JFE in Holland, not long after the end of the logging school in Bremen. Jane was managing the LAC in the UK and used to do all of our data analysis. I worked with her, and with some of the teams she managed, many times over the subsequent years. I always saw her as being, in particular, a highly effective people-and-team manager, bringing the best resources together to achieve results and motivating people. I’m sure that she was, and is, held in great affection by her colleagues.

 I remember when Jane joined us at Huntly St. TA Ma was extremely pleased that he had managed to recruit her to work in Aberdeen.
Some of the Aberdonians who rarely travelled very far were quite perturbed by this new addition to the office with her brightly coloured clothes and hair style.
One day when my daughters came to the office with me Jane jumped in the lift just as the door was closing and immediately attracted their attention and I could see them glancing surreptitiously at the clothes and hair style as we ascended. My youngest, Ellie at the age of 3 had fuzzy blond hair, as her real hair was very slow to grow. A couple of days later she persuaded Angie to spray it with pink streaks of washable hair colouring!
My thoughts are with you today, take care and kind regards,

I am heartbroken for the loss of such an Angel. Her sweet and gentle soul will always keep a warm and loving place in my heart.  


We will miss you horribly ‘Auntie’ Jane — Trivial Pursuit, Wimbledon, late nights, summers, Christmasses chatting and laughing with our Fairy Godmother. It’s such a shock that you won’t be there anymore to enjoy those things together. You were such fun, so kind and generous, and we were all so lucky to have you as a friend to everyone in our family. We love you very much xxxx

I first met Jane 46 years ago at Bristol University, so during the same era that Mary - my wife to be - met her.

We saw Jane and work permitting Nigel pretty much every year from 1986, with only COVID bringing the at least annual visits to an end.

We had a small but fun wedding, with Jane as the only non-family guest. Jane was there for Mary as ‘best woman’, and - through all the big events in her life and Mary’s - they have been there for each other ever since, on the phone every week, delighted to spend time together each passing year.

We will all miss Jane - Katie, Helen, me, and above all Mary, who has lost a dear, close and loving friend.

Farewell, lovely Jane


My dear British neighbor, it was always a pleasure to meet you around and chat for a while; our pets, tennis,  the omnipresent house repairs, our garden's fruit trees, being a long term foreigner in the US, other neighbors' news, and many other things, even the weather when needed... I enjoyed our conversations because I connected with your sense of humor, we did not need to laugh at each other jokes to let the other one know we found it funny... You will be missed Jane. It saddens me to see you go soo soon. 

Our condolences to Nigel and the rest of the family. 

Pablo, Ana and the girls

Please accept our sympathy over the loss of Jane. With our deepest condolences, Natalia and Stanislav Forgang.

A lovely lady. I shall miss her very much. Someone whom I admired and who was supportive during a difficult time in my life. We shared some laughs either here in the UK, when she and Nigel came over for a visit, or at their home in the States. The times at Christmas with Aunt Norah were especially memorable.  Sending our love to Nigel; Sally and Philip and their families.
Maureen H (Nigel's cousin) and Philip H


My dear friend....such good memories of the almost 40 years we  have known each other....great times and lots of laughter to be remembered. So very sad that you've left far too early.
Safe journey dear Jane.


One weekend in January 1980 Jane came to Bristol to stay with her friend Mary, who lived in the flat below me. Mary told her "You'll like the guy upstairs". And she did. Jane and I  remained friends from then on, despite the different directions our lives later took, and I owe her a great deal for the positive influence she had on my life. My brother George, also in the oil business, who studied geology in the same class as Jane at Bristol university, and my sister Susan join me to offer Nigel, Sally,  Phil and Jane's wider family our heartfelt condolences on their bitter and unexpected loss.

My wonderful fairy godmother Jane, you have been a part of our lives and family for my whole life. I am so sad to know that from now on, all we will have is memories. But, what lovely memories. You have been a true and steadfast friend to mum, and forever kind, generous, caring and giving to me and Katie. I hope you know how much we all loved you. Your fairy goddaughter, Helen xxxx 

My darling friend, what will I do without you? For 46 years you’ve been there for me, and I would like to think I’ve been there for you. Through lots of good times and some bad, we’ve made each other laugh so much and we’ve certainly cried together. Shared history is something special, and it comes along very rarely. I feel lucky that shared history was with you. You were so close to my family and my girls in particular, and you made me so welcome to join your family. I feel lucky to have known Vera and Denis, and to know Sally, Phil and Nigel. Every year we look forward to you coming to England, the clothes shopping, the jewellery experiences, the meals (and of course the wine!). You will take with you the secrets of our youth and trust me I won’t be telling anyone anything about it any time soon. That was for us to share; what a time we had. I miss you so much and you will always be my special, best friend. Lots of love from Mary xxxxxx 

Dear Jane - I was so glad to become reacquainted with her as adults, and to discover that we shared so much. I thought of her as a very warm and close friend, even though we lived so far apart, and only met once a year. We got on together so well, and talked much about the whole family.
She has been taken from us far too soon.
My deepest condolences to Nigel, Sally, and Philip, and their families.
Susan Thomas (Cousin)

When we moved to Houston 25 years ago Jane & Nigel opened their home and welcomed us into their circle of friends for our first Christmas there. I always look back fondly at all the good times spent together during the time we lived in Houston, and I was so sad to hear that Jane has passed away much too soon. My deepest sympathies to Nigel, my thoughts are with you.

Jane - we have been on some interesting, funny, thought provoking journeys together from the US to China, until we meet again farewell dear friend.

What to say? What is there to say that is meaningful? I've lost my friend, my friend who remained constant throughout 62 years, my best friend. Life will never be the same. It will be poorer for you no longer being part of it, my dear friend. You will always remain part of me though, as you have done through the many irregular years of separation, understanding inherently where I am coming from without needing explanation, you just got me, as I did you. As different as we were, we were still so alike. Thank you for being there and for sharing and for making the effort both to welcome me and to come and see me during times when we were both so time-poor thanks to worklife imbalance. It was your generosity of spirit that held our friendship together for so long. Through all the tears, I can only be grateful for that, and remember the so many times that we laughed, and laughed… 

I enjoyed every day that I worked with Jane at IHS. She was my compatriot. I was sad to see her leave but I knew she had no opportunity there. I admired the way she just got after things forging a nice career for herself. I was glad she got to retire early so she could enjoy life. Especially now with that life being cut short. RIP Jane.

A very sad time Jane was a lovely  kind generous  lady. I will miss my cousin a lot . Lesley

OBITUARY

Jane Elizabeth Thomas Smith

12 January, 1956 – 7 December, 2021

Forest Park Westheimer Funeral Home & Cemetery

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