They say people should write from the heart. I believe I do that most of the time. In a previous post, I wrote about My girl Janet, the Survivor Warrior. In that post, I wrote about the struggles Janet had with Taz and all that came with it.
My girl Janet lost her battle with Taz earlier this year. I have tried to write this post for months now, but just could not bring myself to finish it. For as many times as I tried, I found I could only write about some of the terrible things she went through before she passed away. I asked my friend Lisa to edit the original post, and her response was swift and to the point. That post was far too long and much too somber. That was not who our friend Janet was, (Lisa’s words not mine) and we would certainly meet Janet’s wrath someday had we posted it.
So with considerable input from Lisa, I decided to rewrite and publish the post as an October Breast Cancer Awareness tribute to Janet. I wanted to honor the courageous battle Janet fought. I decided to share more photos than words because I think they tell a better story.
Lisa and I went to visit Janet at the beginning of the Pandemic. Janet had asked us to come and we knew it might be our last POSSE REUNION. So we packed our sanitizer, gloves, and masks and off we went. We both vowed that we would be strong and as upbeat as possible in front of Janet. To some extent it was easy because when we arrived, Janet was dressed to a T, her hair was done, her makeup was on, (including her famous lipstick) and she did a pretty good job of staying engaged with us even though we knew she was struggling.
Her sister, and loving caregiver, told us later how long it took Janet to get ready because she didn’t want our last reunion to be sad and somber. That was so Janet! Let’s just have happy times, laughing and acting silly, no bad stuff. So we sucked it up, put on our brave faces and told “remember when” stories. We shared old pictures and had some good laughs. It was evident she was struggling to stay alert with us and make the last reunion memorable. AND IT WAS!
I’m so grateful that Lisa pushed me to make this visit, initially I was hesitant what with the virus and all, but now we’re both so grateful we went. We’re glad we had the opportunity to reminisce all the happy memories we had shared over the last 33 years.
I always try to come up with one or two words that would describe a person. I’m still trying to come up with the perfect word for Janet, but in the meantime, I will say this, conversation with Janet was ALWAYS, brash, bold, feisty, funny and yet most of the time it was no nonsense. She had her way of getting right to the point. If she liked you, she liked you, if she didn’t, best to leave the room because you probably had no chance. Janet was who she was, no “fake” pretend Janet. She spoke her mind and DID NOT mince words, or she didn’t speak at all.
You never left her company feeling like you didn’t know where you stood. She was unique and like no one I have ever met. For our reunions we were always laughing, sometimes we were so silly it was embarrassing when we were in public. And GOD forbid if a few drinks were involved, it got louder and funnier sometimes to the point of no control. But we didn’t care, I’m sure that was part of what bonded us.
Lisa and Janet were like side-kicks, Thelma and Louise, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They both had a mischievous side and many times it got them in trouble. I was always the adult in the room trying to watch out for them. From the day we met it was an odd threesome but for some reason we just clicked, and it stayed solid.
Our bond has never been broken, not even by TAZ.
If we could pick our family the way we pick our friends, there would be a lot more LOVE in the world.
