By Jenny McCourt

Early Years

Jennifer Diane McCourt (nee Davies) was born at the Jesse McPherson Hospital in Melbourne on 22nd December,1964. Her parents were Alva Gladys Cowen and William Frankston Davies.

For most of her life Jenny has lived at the family home at 6 Lincoln Parade, Aspendale. She moved out of the family home sometime in 1988 to live with Sean McCourt in a unit in Keefer St., Mordialloc for about 2-3 years.

Education

Jenny attended the Aspendale Kindergarten in 1969. She then attended Aspendale Primary School (1970-72), before going overseas with her parents in 1973, returning to the Aspendale Primary School (1974-1976). She was House Vice Captain at Aspendale Primary School in 1975 and School Captain in 1976. Her best friends included Shelley Quinn, Melinda Van Klaveren, Katherine Mack, Glenda Bean, Debbie Cairns. Jenny attended Mordialloc High School from 1977-1982. She was very studious and involved at High school, particularly in the senior years, in debating teams, co-editor of the school magazine Venture in 1981, various school productions and the school choir. She was Form Captain in 1977 and School Captain in 1982. Her closest friends were Glenda Bean, Samia Abdelmesieh, Lousie Blythe, Susan McWilliam, Karen Donlan, David Beasley, Jeff Campbell, Rick Woodman and many others. She thoroughly enjoyed her years at High School and did not want to leave.

During her school years, she also attended 2 dance schools, Patti Rudd School of Dance from 1972-1974 and the Mathis School of Dance from 1975-1981. (Tap dancing to senior silver and Ceccheti Ballet to grade 4.) She also learned piano with Mrs Piri Vojjlay to grade 6 level in 1981. In 1982 she left both piano and dance classes to concentrate on her Higher School Certificate.

She went on to study a Bachelor of Applied Science degree of Podiatry from 1983-1985 at the Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences in Carlton and Abbotsford. Her close friends here were Pelita Papas, Stephen, Wisken, Robert Wallace, Margot Bell and Heather Game. Jenny gained her B.App.Science (Podiatry) Ceremony at Dallas Brooks Hall (1986), and went into private practise doing domiciliary podiatry visits soon after, and full time employment with the Mount Eliza Geriatric Centre. She worked at various places on full, casual and part-time basis, both private and public practises, until she left to have her first baby (Erin) in November 1999. She continued doing her private home visits, and the occasional nursing home throughout all her subsequent pregnancies.

Employment

1980: Work experience during 1980 with Rita Schroen a local podiatrist, for a couple of weeks
Dec 1980 - Jan1981: Darrell Lea, Southland
Dec 1981- Jan 1982: Norgen Vaaz Ice Cream, Southland
Dec 1982- Feb 1983: Villante Aluminum anodizing Jan-Feb
Feb 1984: Grape picking with Marty at Mildura (the Loncars)
May1984 - Oct 1985: Dot Hyde housecleaning
Marc - Oct 85: Andrea Howell housecleaning
Dec 1984 - Feb 1985: Simmons Bedding and upholstery
Dec 1986: L’Oreal Hair Care Factory
Jan 1986-Oct 1986: Hampton Senior Citizens Podiatry service
April 1986 - mid 1988: Mt. Eliza Geriatric Centre (Mt Eliza, Chelsea Day Hospital and Springvale Day Hospital
Oct 1988? - June 1999: Kingston Centre
April 1986 - Nov 1999: Springvale Day Hospital
1986-2002: Various Nursing Homes - Blue Ribbon, Frankston, Corowa Court, Mornington, RSL Park War Vets Home, Frankston
April 2010 - ongoing: Noble Park Podiatry
Feb 1986 - ongoing: Private podiatry domicillary practise
December 2006 - ongoing: Locum Podiatrist as needed (Frankston Podiatry, Malvern Podiatry, Fit Foot Podiatry)

Relationships, Marriage and Family.

Jenny dated Michael Brand in 1981: a long distance friendship, as he was in boarding school at Geelong Grammar and continues to remain Facebook friends with him. In her HSC year (1982), she dated Jeff Campbell for over 8 months, and remained in contact with him in later years via Facebook until his untimely death of a heart attack in August 2016.

In 1979, Jenny started attending the Church of the Open Door in Mentone with her best friend Samia. She became a Christian, and quickly became involved in church life: the music group, youth group camps and bible studies. She loved being involved with it all, and made many life-long friends. It was here that she met her husband to be in 1984. They later left this church, and did some “church-hopping” to find one that they both liked. Churches attended included Burwood Life Centre, Christ Church, Dingley (where they were married—at the 100 year old church building on the corner of Centre Dandenong Road, Dingley), Destiny Church Dingley, Cornerstone Church in Frankston, and Grace Church in Endeavour Hills. The Grace Church members were wonderful to Sean and Jenny during his battle with leukaemia in 2009, providing many home cooked meals each week, financial support, and a team to tend to their garden when it became overgrown.

Jenny met and started dating Sean David Tomas McCourt on 20th April 1986. She was engaged on 8th November 1986 and married on 14th September 1991. She gave birth to a daughter, Erin Rachel McCourt (b1/12/1999). Another daughter, Cara Jane McCourt (b1/5/2002), and son Ryan Joseph William McCourt (b29/3/2004).

Jenny and Sean moved into her parents old home at 6 Lincoln Parade, Aspendale in January 1991, when her parents moved to Chelsea to care for her grandfather William James Davies. Sean McCourt was not a well man, having battled with depression for most of his adult life and developed Type 2 diabetes and obesity. He was diagnosed with an aggressive Acute B-cell Lymphoblastic Leukeumia on the 6th March 2009 and died 11 months later on 23rd February 2010 aged only 48.

Jenny met Ben Walton in April 2011 and they quickly developed a relationship, as they instantly hit it off. Jenny’s children liked and approved of him, inviting him to come and live with them because “he was fun” in December 2014. Jenny and Ben were engaged on 21st January 2017.

Physical Characteristics and Medical History

Jenny is about 5’8” tall, with black hair, brown eyes, and a usually happy nature.

At the age of 30 in November 1994, she was found to be suffering from an under-active thyroid gland for many years. She suffered from right calf DVT in Feb 1997. In January 2011, she was diagnosed with arthritis in her right knee aged 45, and had a benign PolyVillonodularSynovitis (PVNS) tumour removed from the same knee in November 2014. In late 2017, she, like her brother Martin Davies and her aunt Jean Lyne, was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease.