ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Janet’s father found his English Rose when he was stationed in England in the early 1950s. His bride had lived through the bombing raids of WW2. They were together for 50 years.
A son was born to them in England. Then soon after Janet was born in Florida where her father’s family had immigrated from Scotland back in the 1880’s. Four more daughters expanded the family in the next few years.
Her father continued in the USAF and was transferred every couple of years. So a wanderlust was born in Janet out of the opportunity to travel aboard when the family was stationed during the Cold War in North Africa and the South Pacific. As well as living off-base in the heartland of the United States in Kansas, Florida, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nevada, California, Texas.
Janet always says she did eighteen years in the Air Force—with her family. The year her father retired from the service she graduated high school in Houston, Texas.
Military relocations resulted in Janet attending 5 high schools in four years but she still managed to graduate with honors and a nursing scholarship. She pursued a career in nursing through her 20s in Houston.
The wanderlust grew again in her late 20s and a opportunity arrived to move to the west coast. First to Neveda and then California. She switched careers to sales.
In Los Angeles she met Jim and life changed dramatically and quickly, Marriage followed a lengthy courtship of (almost) five weeks. Then two beautiful baby boys arrived within two years.
Life became so full with Brian & Michael being only thirteen months apart. School, soccer, boys scouts and acting lessons. Her favorite part was always having a houseful of boys and a plethora of sleepovers at their house.
She had the opportunity in being a stay at home mom for years while the boys were attending elementary school. During those incredible formative years of the boys growing up was/is her greatest accomplishment. She loved cooking, baking, playing board games, hiking, swimming and going to the beach with her handsome young men. Weekends were reserved for family time with Jim and the boys. Lots of trips to visit her family in Las Vegas, weekend getaways to Santa Barbara, San Diego, Solvang, San Simone, San Luis Obispo, among the family’s favorite places to visit often.
Family vacations included visiting friends in Alaska and Colorado. Before the boys left home the family vacation to Hawaii was the most incredible! Brian was going to move there and Jim was going to quit his job, they both loved it so much and were instantly attracted to the warmth and beauty of not only the island but the Hawaiian hospitality.
In the late 1990’s Janet found her niche in home warranty insurance and became a top sales representative. She loved calling on realtors and escrow officers and made many friends in the industry. In the mid 2000’s she switched to title insurance where Brian helped her for a time with marketing. After the 2008 financial collapse she went back to home warranty where she retired in 2016.
After retirement she and Jim traveled to Australia to visit her mom’s oldest brother, Brian and meet her cousins. It was a dream come true to see her beloved uncle and meet her cousin, Sharmain. Having only met Uncle Brian once before in 1986, it was so nice seeing him again after twenty years! Since being in Australia they also visited Fiji and New Zealand.
After that they went to visit Janet’s family in the United Kingdom with stops in Copehhagen, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Dublin, Waterford, Edinburgh, & Manchester (her mother’s place of birth). Meeting some family members for the very first time was remarkable and sad as her mother had already passed away in 2004. It was bittersweet visiting all the places her mother told her about, as her mom was a natural born storyteller with acute clarity of the war years in 1939. Her one wish was that her children never experienced what she went through during those horrible years with having to go to the bomb shelters at night.
Before Brian got sick Jim and Janet had the opportunity to visit her moms beloved homeland again. Traveling by train all over the United Kingdom was a dream come true and seeing Stonehenge and Bath were most amazing and incredible trips.
As a part of the healing following Brian’s passing, Janet began to write the story of his amazing life. Janet believes we are all here for a purpose to grow spiritually and learn lessons that we choose to learn before we come here as spiritual beings. Writing this book gave her a purpose to, hopefully, help those that have gone through similar experiences with the loss of a loved one that so profoundly affected our inner soul, as Brian’s did to Janet.
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Janet resides in Oregon with her husband, Jim and their adopted Chiweenie, Buttercup.