Plans for a relaxing retirement for well-loved school secretary and parish clerk Carolyn Jobson ended when she was killed in a road accident.

A moment’s inattention by Wisbech driver Janet Durrant (66) led to Mrs Jobson’s death and now she has been sentenced to 240 hours of unpaid work over 12 months and a two-year driving ban after admitting causing death by careless driving at Cambridge Crown Court last Monday (April 27).

Mrs Jobson was just one week away from retiring after 22 years as secretary at Elm School when she was killed on March 27 last year as she cycled along Fridaybridge Road, Elm.

Durrant (66) of Church Road, Emneth struck Mrs Jobson with her Skoda Fabia car as she cut the corner while turning right from Fridaybridge Road into Gosmoor Lane.

The sentencing ended almost 13 months of waiting for Mrs Jobson’s grieving husband Keith, who had written to local MP Steve Barclay to try to speed up the legal process.

This week the retired photocopier engineer paid tribute to his hardworking wife and said that while he felt the sentence was not strong enough he accepted justice had been done.

He said his wife who worked for Barclays Bank for over 20 years before becoming secretary at Elm School was looking forward to her impending retirement and was planning to take advantage of the extra time by visiting places.

She was also planning to continue her part-time work as clerk to Wisbech St Mary.

“You know what it’s like, you just haven’t got the time to do things you like when you work full-time so she was really looking forward to having time to relax and do the things she enjoyed, but sadly that didn’t happen,” explained Mr Jobson.

Elm parish church was packed for Mrs Jobson’s funeral and more than £800 was raised at the service, which together with other money raised at the school and other donations has been used to create a special memorial garden at the school.

“Carolyn was planning to go in on a voluntary basis to listen to children read and in the summer they sit outside so they have created a nice space in her memory for the pupils to use,” said Mr Jobson.

He said: “She was a very determined person, she wouldn’t admit it but she was very clever. She believed that if a job was worth doing it was worth doing well and would always take on more than her role required. She was extremely hardworking and it is such a tragedy that she did not get the chance to enjoy her retirement,” said Mr Jobson.

The couple were married 43-years and enjoyed things like skiing and playing badminton together. Mrs Jobson, who was born and lived her early live in March, also enjoyed swimming.

She also leaves two brothers, Brian Tolliday of Wisbech and David Tolliday of Cambridge and sister Pam of York, as well as a number of nephews and nieces.