On 25 November 2022, the day after Thanksgiving, Janet W Jason was called home to join her parents, her son Colin, and one of her daughters, Elisabeth. She is survived by her husband Mark and daughter Amanda, and by her sister Cyndie Loggans and her brother Robert Westerman. In the last few years Jan had adapted to, endured, and suffered with the slow progression of dementia and poor health. But her health and her passing are neither the history nor the story of a woman that lived, loved, and most importantly gave of herself. That is the life we who are still here will remember.
Jan was born in Canandaigua, NY, and named Janet Marie Westerman. But she grew up in Battle Creek, MI, the middle child of three, attended Battle Creek Central HS and the University of Michigan School of Pharmacy. Across these years Jan was a swimmer, diver, hospital volunteer, and pharmacist in training. She met her husband in their senior year, and followed him to New Haven CT, securing a position in the Hospital Pharmacist residency program at Yale-New Haven Hospital. They were married in 1973. Jan’s profession allowed her to follow Mark throughout his multi-station career with always a pharmacy opportunity waiting, including Evanston Hospital and Deaconess Hospital in St. Louis. Jan continued to work until 2013.
But Jan was not defined only by her profession. Jan’s true gift was service. There was little that Jan would not do to help young women grow, experience nature, learn to do things that were hard, or to struggle and rebound from difficulties. She volunteered for a dozen years in elementary classrooms, but the Girl Scouts were her passion. Jan was a troop leader from approximately 1982 until 2004. Crafts, service projects, and helping others were always on the menu, but camping was her passion and forte. Many of those 22 years included providing an outdoor experience for an uncounted number of young women. Bugs, bunks, one-holers, and one-pan meals. Over the last two decades, with neither daughter in Scouts, Jan converted her basement into an elf’s workshop, producing blankets and booties for the infants on Elisabeth’s pediatric intensive care unit. Only when her aging eyesight required did she idle the sewing machine. Jan gave of her time and energy for over 50 years.
Jan was an ardent University of Michigan, Boston, and St. Louis sports fan. The day after she passed, the Maize and Blue had a wonderful day. However, it might have been a coincidence.
Jan has earned her rest, but we can remember her generous heart, dedicated to making the lives of others more interesting, more fruitful, and more comfortable. That we could all follow her example.
Family and friends will be received on Saturday, December 10th, from 1-3 p.m., at the Farmer & Dee Funeral Home, 16 Lee Street, Tewksbury.