A BEAUTIFUL blonde, with an air of Dusty Springfield sits calmly on the steps at Bridgeton Cross, as life bustles around her.

It is 1965, and the ‘girl on the steps’ – the chic, composed Jenny Hall - is waiting for her husband to come home from work so they can go to the cinema.

Just a few years’ after this stunning photo was taken, however, Jenny’s world was turned upside down.

The iconic image, which we first published to launch our Thanks for the Memories series, sparked a flurry of memories but the most touching of all came from Jenny’s sister Helen MacLeod.

“I loved seeing Jenny’s picture again in the Evening Times,” smiles the 58-year-old, who now lives in Mount Florida.

“She was stunning – so glamorous and she never changed. I miss her every day.”

Four years after Jenny’s serene pose on the steps of the Olympia cinema, her mother died after a short battle with lung cancer.

Helen recalls: “Our mum, who was also called Jenny, was just 45 when she died. It was very quick, it all happened within just six weeks.

“I was 11, my sister Susan was 13 and my brother Robert was nine.

“Unfortunately, my father wasn’t able to look after us, so just before Christmas 1969, Jenny and her husband Billy took us in to stay with them.”

Jenny and Billy lived in a room and kitchen on Rutherglen Road.

“They put a bed in their room for Robert and Susan and I slept on a pull-down couch,” says Helen.

“Jenny was only 26 and it must have been so hard for her, bringing up three children who were still grieving, as she was herself.

“It wasn’t all rosy at first. We kids bickered a lot, but Jenny was so patient with us all.

“A year later, Jenny and Billy had their own baby, a boy called Billy.”

Helen describes her big sister as ‘like a second mum’.

“When I got divorced and became a single parent to my daughter Lisa, she helped me tremendously,” she says.

“We were really close growing up. We went shopping, did decorating, went to the cinema. It was such a laugh.”

Sadly, Jenny died in 2009 after developing the lung condition COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

Helen went to live with her sister for the last year of her life.

“Even when she was dying, she always looked stunning,” says Helen, softly. “She never lost her sense of humour.”

“She was a great aunt to my daughter Lisa, who is now a mother herself. I’m really proud of her – she is in her third year at university, studying to be a psychologist, and she has two daughters, Brooke, who is 13, and four-year-old Sofia.”

Losing their sister hit Helen and her family hard, but she says Jenny’s legacy is all about caring and compassion.

“Jenny always said we should make sure to speak to each other every day, or cuddle each other if we were near enough,” smiles Helen.

Seeing the photo of Jenny in the Evening Times brought back many happy memories for Helen and for Jenny’s husband Billy, who came along to our launch event at Glasgow Women’s Library in Bridgeton in September.

“I think all the Thanks for the Memories articles are wonderful, it’s lovely to read,” she says, adding with a laugh: “I’m sure Jenny would have loved all the attention – she will be sitting somewhere, giggling away, enjoying every minute.”

She pauses. “Jenny was the best sister - it was like losing my best friend,” she adds. “I admired her so much for her strength, love and compassion and for all she taught me.

“She’s my big beautiful sister and I will love her and miss her forever.”

Following on from the overwhelming success of our Bridgeton launch event of Thanks for the Memories, we are heading from the east end to the south side and setting up at Gorbals Library on Tuesday, October 25.

The drop-in event, from 10am until 12 noon, is open to anyone with fond memories of the neighbourhood and we’d love to see any old photographs, cinema tickets, newspapers or other artefacts you may have kept from the ‘old days’.

If you have lived in the Gorbals all your days or grew up there and have moved away, and have particular memories of the place and its people, we would love to hear about them.

If you can’t make it along on the day, please send your memories and photographs to ann.fotheringham@heraldandtimes.co.uk or call 0141 302 6555.