Born in 1948 in Kirklees west Yorkshire and lived at Woodkirk with my sister Beryl and brother Roy. I went in the army in 1964 where I trained as a telephonist in the Signals.
Married David Collier in 1968 and had 2 children Joanne and Richard and lived in Ossett west Yorkshire for 17 years.
Met Andrew when I went to stay with a friend in Pandy in the Ceiriog valley North wales and with 2 days moved in. Divorced my first husband and married Andrew in 1985.
My childhood was magical, spending time with my two oldest of four cousins playing in the fields and the woodland at the back of my parents’ house. My cousins Robert, Josephine and I would play a game of “let’s pretend” and made up games consisting of all thing from fairytales we had read and make up of woodland creatures and fairy’s and elves of our own.
In the holidays we would put on plays and concerts which we wrote ourselves for the neighbours.
When I retired, I found myself thinking back to the tales we made up and decided to write about them for my friend Yukari’s daughter Akari. I based my characters Akari, and koji on my cousins Josephine and Robert and I think the bossy part of Cherry blossoms character was based on me and I do have big feet.
I talked my sister beryl into doing the pictures for my stories as my artwork is rubbish and I can only paint on a very large scale, a little bit like my big feet. I decided to call our work “The Foulstone Sisters”.
I was born 15 years before Diane and lived in Woodkirk until my marriage to Derek Hey at 20. Woodkirk was a small quiet village then and when not at school my childhood was spent exploring the surrounding gorgeous woods and fields, actually there was very little else one could do but it was ideal.
I initially worked as a legal secretary for 12 years up to the birth of my children Karen and Graham and when I returned to work, I joined a company manufacturing upholstery textiles, where for over 25 years I was very involved in the design and colour selection of fabrics for sale.
On my retirement my first journey into learning something new was to take art lessons and to continue my love of colours. I was thrilled to join Diane in her lovely stories.