They never said blogging would be easy. Sometimes it is, but this one is hard to write. It's about my friend Janet. We didn't get a chance to be friends very long, but in the six months I knew her, I came to feel like she was my sister. I guess bonds are formed quickly when you know you don't have much time.
When I met Janet, she was living in Greensboro, but traveling back and forth to New York for her cancer treatments. What struck me first was her fierceness. She told me that when I offered to take care of Taylor while her mommy and daddy were at work, she thought I was trying to take her place as grandmother. Thankfully, I got her to see that I was only looking for someone to play with. It was Taylor who got us together to paint ceramics, because we both liked to paint, and we both loved her. Good call, Taylor.
Janet loved her family and her friends, and she made me feel welcome in whatever group she was in. She beamed one day when I told her that Taylor had said, "But, Kate, you are family, because I'm used to you." Janet made me love her, and she made me want desperately for her to get better so Jordyn could also grow to know this courageous, funny, creative grandma.
I only know young Janet from her stories. I know she did not have an easy life, but she was happy. She loved her life, and she was not ready to leave. She reminded me of Taylor when Mommy or Daddy would come to pick her up while she was still playing. "I'm not ready to go yet," she would wail. Well, Janet was still playing, and she was definitely not ready to go.
Today would be Janet's 64th birthday. She died 13 years ago, when Jordyn was only a few months old, but she still speaks to me through her emails. It's all there in her messages--her fears, her anger, her love and her hopes. She made me laugh at her stories; like the time she woke up in the middle of the night and cut lips out of a rubber stamp because she wanted to use them on a frog she was painting. She had no memory of having done it the next day, but the evidence was there. Actually, Janet made me laugh a lot. We had fun.
I think this picture of Janet and her son, Jason, must have been taken in the late 1970's. I wish I had known her then, when we had years of living ahead of us. I can only be thankful for the short time that I knew her.
Happy Birthday, Janet. Be at peace, my friend.
2 comments:
This is a lovely tribute to a friend, Kate. Thanks!
Thank you, Cindy.
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