Her neighbours had tried to talk her out of it, but the strong-willed great-grandmother refused to listen.

Mrs Jarmain, 86, never came home. Her small silver Ford Focus was no match for the fast-flowing floodwaters that swept it from Cessnock Road into the deep waters that covered grazing land at Gillieston Heights.

Determined to return to her Davies Street home, she had followed a procession of four-wheel-drives trying to make a dash to Gillieston Heights before it became land-locked.

Mrs Jarmain had no power and dwindling food supplies two days after Gillieston Heights was hit in the horrific storm that began on Monday night.

“We had been boiling water for her on the barbecue and taking it over in a thermos,” neighbour Kath Wilkinson said.

“We sent some water over at 7.30am and that’s when she said she was going into town. She had said she would have loved to go and visit Jim [her husband] who is in a nursing home, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to. We told her she didn’t need to go, but she yelled out to [my husband] Geoff to thank him when she left. 

“We’ve known her for 12 years. She was only saying the other day how Jim had built this house for them.

“She always waved, always had a chat. Jim used to sit out the front and feed the magpies; they would come down and sit on him. After [he left] she kept feeding them. She had little portions of minced meet for her magpies.

“I can’t believe she is gone.”

Mrs Jarmain’s son Trevor Jarmain was deeply moved by the efforts of rescuers who leapt into the icy floodwaters to try to reach his mother.

“I can’t thank them enough for what they did,” he said.

Trevor said his mother was matriarch of a large family, a much-loved mother of three – Trevor, Robert and Jennifer – and grandmother and great-grandmother to many.

“She was healthy and active and very strong willed,” Trevor said.

“She was an avid bowler and was a member of the Telarah Bowling Club.

“She will be sadly missed.”

Telarah Bowling Club members were in shock at the loss of their friend. 

“She was a lovely lady, I was just sitting up thinking about it,’’ one bowling friend said. 

“I was thinking it can’t be true, I can’t get it through my mind. 

“She was doing so good for her age, at 86.’’