We discussed what I would do with her when she passed a long time ago. She told me that she wanted to be cremated and her ashes sprinkled in the Texas City Dike. Then she decided that she didn’t want to be,”fish food”. We talked about her being buried with her kids, but it seemed so complicated and expensive. My mom, Jan was preceded in death by her infant son, Timmy, who passed in 1968 at 6 weeks old, and her daughter, Laura, who was murdered in her teens. It is my hope that I can have them all reunited one day. For now though, I am hoping to be able to have her ashes placed with my sister at Mount Olivet in Dickinson.

She was a listening ear to many who had no one else to talk to. She gave good advice.

A unexplained magnetism. Maybe it was her child-like view. Kids and animals were drawn to her.

She was simple, yet complicated.

Intuitive and witty, stubborn.

She didn’t like to be told who to do. “Im set in my ways”, she would say.

I tried to get her to live with me for years. I brought her ashes home yesterday. I told her this morning, “ Finally, I can keep an eye on you”. I miss you Janet Mae.