top of page

Remembering Janie

herringtonbd

Janie is my sister. She was born October 20. I’m celebrating her today. Janie is with God and loved ones who preceded her in the wondrous journey from this life to life eternal. God has clothed Janie with a new body, a clear mind.


If I look closely, I can see ten-year-old Janie playing ball on the weed and dirt field at the corner of Fourth and Sanford, fielding a bad hop and throwing out the runner at first. Smacking a line drive to left field. Neighborhood kids who knew her always picked Janie for their team, because she could field, throw, and hit. There’s Janie playing basketball for the East Erie Turners, all five feet two of her, matching up against a six foot two girl from the Greek Catholic Slovak Club, and saying to her coach, “Holy Smoke, what does her mother feed her?”


Janie and I are riding the Lake Erie waves and we’re pretending not to hear dad and mother calling that it’s time to go home. She’s walking with mother along the beach at the water’s edge, pigtails and all, looking for colorful stones, and shells.


Janie marries John Tubbs and they are the parents of Chuck, Laurie and Jill.. We’re on the phone, and I want to know the news about her, but Janie doesn’t say much about herself. She tells me about her kids: Chuckie’s starting to walk; Laurie lost one of her baby teeth; Jill started kindergarten today. Time passes and she tells me about grandchildren Amy, Michelle, Patrick, Katie, Jenny, Jared, Josh. Janie loves her family.


Singing was a large part of life for our dad and mother’s families. Janie and I are little kids, and we learn a bunch of songs and hymns from our family. We’re together in college, singing harmony in the stairwell of her dorm, because the sound is awesome. We sing at her granddaughter Amy’s wedding under the dining tent. We sing on the phone, the words and music temporarily leaping over the Alzheimer’s barrier. Now it’s a few days before Christmas, 2013. At the care home where she is living, Janie sings Christmas carols with me. We sing the Swedish version of Jingle Bells for the staff, “Yingle Bells, Yingle Bells,” and we laugh and hug. In March 2014 we said, “So long for now.” Janie is my sister. I love you, Janie.



Recent Posts

See All

That Mild Sunday in December

Erie Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Tourism does not boast of its weather during the winter months. Erie, Pennsylvania which lies on the...

Modifier Oddifiers

Let’s have some fun with misplaced and dangling modifiers. What are misplaced and dangling modifiers? What is a modifier? A modifier is...

2 comentários


Ann Winkle
Ann Winkle
19 de out. de 2021

What an emotional and loving tribute to Janie. So many memories are flooding my mind right now. By far the most loving memory is the way that she welcomed me into the family. I was so nervous that day but as my sons and I walked into that home we felt nothing but Janie’s love and hugs!


The dining room chair that she sat in constantly……I never saw her sit in any other room on any other piece of furniture. The long walks up and down those dang steep hills! And, yes, the singing!


Janie had such a simple, simplistic outlook on life and I mean that in the most positive way. I never heard a negative or hurtful wor…


Curtir
herringtonbd
herringtonbd
19 de out. de 2021
Respondendo a

Thank you very much, Ann. Your feelings about Janie reflect her character and spirit exactly. Love you!

Curtir

5 Mostly H5eading 3

© 2019 by Bailey Herrington. Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page