Miranda Pickersgill, former Chief Executive, CACDP

"I was so sorry to hear recently that Jessica Hills had died, though it didn't surprise me to know that she had been at meetings for Sense and writing e-mails right to the end. Jessica was always working (except that she would not have called it 'work', it being so central to her life). I first met Jessica in about 1973 when I was a student teacher of the deaf, on a visit from Manchester University, and she was teaching at Braidwood School in Birmingham. Our paths crossed many times, through adult literacy, inter-school contacts and the organisation LASER and, more recently, when Jessica was a trustee at CACDP and a valued source of advice and information. It appeared to me that she changed little over that time even in appearance (although of course she did -the image was and is still so strong!). I can't say I got to know Jessica well at a personal level but professionally I had tremendous respect for all that she did and stood for. Jessica was very modest, never out to make a name for herself, always putting deaf and deafblind people first. Jessica was not one to jump onto bandwagons but was never far behind, having given careful consideration to the latest thinking in the light of the day-to-day lives of deaf people. I know she will be greatly missed and I hope that she will be given the recognition that she deserves, both as an individual of great integrity and modesty, and as a professional, a real expert in her field."