In Memory of Janet...

My good friend, Janet Laursen, passed away last week. She was diagnosed a year and a half ago with lung cancer and it slowly engulfed her body. She passed at home with her family close. I had recently taken her to the hospital for an oncology appointment and knew from her doctors' tone that she was not improving and that she had weeks to a month left...on our way home, Janet talked a little about not being afraid to die, but also, she had hopes of "getting better"...I knew she was being optimistic..this was her way..she never wanted anyone to worry for her...I knew that she would not get better...her body would not do the things she needed to do. Walking was becoming impossible...and there was pain...I suggested to her sister that it was time to bring in Hospice to get prepared for her possible passing....this service counsels the family in the stages of dying...I'm glad she did....the last days were anxious for Janet and she was calmed by the care giving medications that are part of the Hospice program...she died peacefully and quietly in her own bed, in her own house, on her own mountain, Sonoma Mountain, the place she loved the best! She and her sister, Judy have lived in Glen Ellen for over 20 years and this was her favorite place. I will always remember Janet as a high spirit who always had something good to say about everyone. I think of our times together and that trait is the one thing that I enjoyed most about her...she always put a positive twist on everything. Our first times together were on our weekly runs through the Glen Ellen Regional park, or around Spring Lake Park in Santa Rosa. We both worked as waiters at the Kenwood Restaurant and our fun time was getting together for our weekly run/chats and then go have lunch. Usually, sushi at Yao Kiko. We tried lots of sushi, but that restaurant was our most favorite! We both loved shopping... probably, too much, but we always shared our "good finds" and that was fun. Our favorite adventures were our trips to Yosemite. Our first time there was hiking the Half Dome trail all in one day! We felt very accomplished as we pulled ourselves up the last 100 yards of the unsupported wire cables that lay on the granite rocks! The final top was so exhilarating! We were the only ones up there! This all day event "hatched" the next trip... backpacking the trail where we stayed overnight in little Yosemite Valley campsite at the base of Half Dome. This was great fun in planning as Janet was the organizer and had every little item necessary for camping out. We even packed in a bottle of red wine for our evening dinner only to have forgotten... THE wine opener! We thought we were so prepared! I simply pushed the cork into the bottle and we were in business. That evening was also memorable because of a bear that raided our camp! As Janet and I pretended to be invisible, we huddled together in our make shift log jam fortress thinking that this pile of logs would protect us from the bear! We survived and made it down the trail to celebrate with beer and pizza. Nothing tasted better! That was a good time. Janet, I will miss you.