My aunt was nanny to JFK's two children... she had to tell them their daddy was dead

Devoted nanny to President John F Kennedy's children, it fell to trusted Maud Shaw to break the devastating news of his assassination to his daughter.

- BY SARA WALLIS

PLAYFUL John Jr &, left, President in 1961 ON DUTY Maud with Jaqueline and children

Maud, from Kent, was a very special governess, hired by the president and his wife to be their children's "very own Mary Poppins". She looked after Caroline and John Jr through good - and famously tragic - times.

An integrated part of their family during her tenure from 1957 to 1965, Maud shaped the lives of JFK's children, becoming an important figure within the White House.

She was included in everything - birthday parties, holidays, family events, even having her own stocking hanging by the fireplace at Christmas. For Caroline and John, she was more than just a nanny.

She was there when JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963, and she had to tell five-year-old Caroline what had happened to her father.

Maud, who died at the age of 85 in 1988, recounted afterwards that she couldn't stop crying as she broke the news and it was "the worst day of my life".

When Maud retired from the White House in 1965, Jackie Kennedy gave her a wonderful silver-framed photograph of herself in the nursery with the children as a gift. It captures a special bond forged with a legendary family.

The photo belongs to Maud's great niece Rachel Ball, 62, from Kingsbridge, Devon, who treasures the heirloom, but brings it to BBC's The Repair Shop after it was accidentally soaked by a watering can and left wrinkled and stained.

Rachel explains that her great aunt "Maudy" began her journey in postwar Britain, working as a nanny. Her first job was with a military family, caring for their children across the world. Rachel says: "She was such a good nanny that she kept on getting poached."

Through a growing network of nannies, Maud became connected with a group of women in America, who encouraged her to make the leap to a place of "bright lights and opportunities".