By Eileen Rogers.
When I met Janice she was approaching middle age, listened to Abba, liked going for car rides, loved chips and pop, and didn’t say much. She was a woman after my own heart! Janice, one of 13 children, grew up in Fenelon Falls surrounded by animals. She moved to Daybreak in 1978 when she was 18.
When I visited her at the Green House, Janice would often get out of her chair, take my hand, and whisper “pop”, which was a sign to me that she wanted to go for a drive. We did simple things like shopping at Value Village, or visiting my house. Janice took great delight in the everyday happenings of the house. We have six daughters and she loved their jokes, their disagreements and especially when one of them seemed upset, she would laugh. This somehow always made us feel better about the situation!
When Janice began to show signs of dementia, she stopped coming to the Day Program and spent a lot of her time in her bedroom. She moved to the Mariann Home in 2009, and soon became comfortable there, walking the halls or watching black and white movies with others. Sitting in a wheelchair, eating pureed food and no longer able to drink diet coke, Janice was different but still she was Janice.
A group of us from Daybreak would visit her every week. She would greet us with a shrug of her shoulder and raised eyebrow, wondering “Where have you been?” I hoped that when the day came to say goodbye I would be there for her and Janice would be there holding me in her heart. I was blessed to be with Jan when she passed away. I will always treasure her friendship and the special bond that we had
~ Eileen Rogers has been a close friend of the Daybreak community and shared a special bond with Janice. Jan died on October 10, 2019. To see more images of Jan visit our online photo album.
