Janet

Janet was a beautiful, very intelligent, well read and creative woman. She was an Art major at BYU, earning a BA degree. After teaching high school art for a couple of years, she took on the role of housewife, marrying an Air Force pilot and raising a family of 5 children.

Janet suffered her entire adult life from depression, seeing psychiatrists and consuming a regimen of prescribed medications for years and years. Despite this, being born and raised in the Mormon church and remaining an active member as an adult, she served in a variety of church positions and devoted extensive time and effort to these duties. This, in addition to the demands of raising a large family.

I spoke of Janet in the past tense above. Janet is my mom. She's still with us, but a creeping dementia has been stealing her for the past 15 or so years. I think Mom was one of the most interesting people I've ever known. Eclectically knowledgable, she was great at Jeopardy. She was raised in Las Vegas and her father was also artistically inclined. I think this contributed to her being more liberally minded than most Mormons, and resulted in a bit less strict upbringing for my siblings and me than would have been the case if it were solely up to my dad.

In many respects, it's like my mom's already dead. You could definitely say she's not with us. She lays on the couch all day looking at books or magazines, perhaps reading without comprehending. She's there when you go to visit, and she'll usually smile and maybe say a word or two here or there, but she's not really there.

I miss my mom.