In Celebration of Janet Garey

“I’m a gracefully aging hippie chick still idealistically crazy in love with Planet Earth and all her inhabitants, flora & fauna, great and small.” J. Garey

It has taken me a while to sit down and write this. Not because I couldn’t find the time – although yes, life has been busy. And not because I didn’t know what to say – although, it is at times like this, that even writers and editors can be at a loss for words.

It is because once one actually sits down to write something like this, there is a sense of, well, permanence. Finality. And that, dear readers, makes me want to cry. Sometimes it only takes a moment for someone to touch your heart.

Janet Garey — our wise, witty, wonderful author who penned Kitten Smitten, Nana’s Neighborhood, and most recently, Dower Power — departed this earth on December 31, 2009.

I’d been holding on to Janet’s last post (she wrote it the week before she passed) in a way to hold on to Janet. But now it is time pay proper tribute — to celebrate a woman, a writer, a mother, a grandmother, who cared so much about her family (of which her ‘critters’ were a huge part), her friends, and the Care2 community.

Janet loved language, loved humor, loved her daughter and granddaughter, and loved all creatures, furry, fuzzy and fluffy. She was, in her own words, “a gracefully aging hippie chick still idealistically crazy in love with Planet Earth and all her inhabitants, flora & fauna, great and small.”

Janet was also a professional journalist, environmental educator, cat-lover and self-professed “AARParrothead”. She was devoted to a variety of community-based projects, the nearest and dearest to her heart: rescuing and finding homes for hundreds of stray and/or abandoned cats.

At last count, her immediate family included six cats and dog Papi, all of whom featured prominently in her writings. She drew us into their lives — her life – with tails (and tales) of hope, courage, humor and inspiration. Sometimes, there was tragedy, as in The Cat-astrophic Cat-alyst, but there was always gratitude and love at the end.

Her imagery brought us into her world, and closer to her loved ones, daughter Amanda, granddaughter Lexie, and the entire furry Garey gang. “Daizee, diminutive, delicate and dainty…she reflects the quiet side of my nature…” while “Gene Wilder who loves everyone loudly, insistently, obviously content with his notion of a purr-fect life; for me, he personifies joy, pure and simple…”

She goes on to describe Siblings Bela and Smudge, “the inseparable duo has reached ‘tween-age’ in size, appetite and temperament….” and Lord Puggington McWhiskers, aka Puggy, “fewer than fifteen weeks old, the toddler thinks himself lion-esque, approaching every aspect of his world with boundless energy and wonder…” and the many foster kittens receiving tender-loving-care before being placed in their new homes. On and on the stories went about the true loves in Janet’s life, and their adventures.

In Dower Power, a column about being an activist in the 1960′s and an activist now entering into her 60′s, she wrote about the idealism of the times and how, just as she and others were activists ‘way back then,’ everyone can be a creative, positive, changemaker today.

“Here, you and I have a weekly opportunity to meander down Memory Lane, speculate about the future, offer some empathy, share experiences, events and people who have shaped ourselves, learn from one another as we contribute a life lesson or two…” she wrote. “And all along the way, I believe we will discover that…..inside each of us lies a beautiful, powerful spirit just waiting to be bequeathed.”

She received hundreds of emails each week from Care2 members, and would respond to nearly every one of them. She loved the Care2 community, and everyone that supported her work and her passions. Her personal motto was “To live, love and learn to be one with Mother Earth now and for always!”

Despite being a self-professed technophobe, the internet was Janet’s connection to the Care2 community and the world when she was no longer able to venture outside her home. And through her words, she touched lives around the globe.

“Please accept our warmest, and heartfelt wishes that you find joy, love, peace, personal, spiritual and social fulfillment now and always,” Janet wrote in her Very Garey Christmas post. “Please know that come whatever date you observe the festival of your heart, the Garey Gang will be with you in spirit.”

We will miss Janet’s wit, her wisdom, and her warmth. I will miss our conversations and her emails. Her words, and her spirit, will remain with us always.

And in a message from her daughter Amanda: Please raise a glass in toast to an extraordinary woman and honor her life in celebration. It’s what she wanted. Let the tears we shed be not only of sadness but of joy in remembrance of the shining light that blessed our lives. Celebrate the woman we knew and loved. Celebrate and pass that love and joy along.

From all of us at Care2, here’s to you Janet: Sending you peace, love, and joy everlasting.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Amanda G.

11:13PM PST on Jan 28, 2012

Okay, third time's the charm.
Hers was a light that shone too brightly to be diminished over any amount of time.
As of this evening, I finally submitted an official request to have Janet Garey's facebook page memorialized. It has rebroken pieces of my heart that I believed were truly beginning to heal.
Janet Garey did her part and more to make this world and it's inhabitants' lives better, richer and more loving. Even now, I see by recent comments in response to her articles that she is still reaching people from all walks of life. My mom did always know how to get her point across.

Be loved and share the wealth.
Amanda Garey

send a green star

Annie F.

11:06PM PST on Jan 28, 2012

blessings to you amanda for posting --- your mother was an inspiration here at care2 to many.

i so enjoyed the many emails we exchanged.

{{{{{{{{{amanda and family}}}}}}}}}

11:03PM PST on Jan 28, 2012

My apologies for the lengthy comment. Apparently, much to my dismay, the majority of my post was cut off and, after crying my eyes out for hours now, I am in no position to rewrite the many things I said. I will repost the remainder of the sentence that was cut short - Of the many, many Janet-isms that have kept me going, I hear her voice in my head reminding me that dying is easy but living is the really hard part. And it is only in living, in fighting for myself and my children, that I truly honor Janet Garey,
For those who have inquired, the cause behind Janet's death is sepsis from undetected pneumonia. She lived with so many ailments - deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary emboli, COPD, CHF, epilepsy, diabetes - that when she developed pneumonia, her PCP felt it unnecessary to even see her for an office visit and merely called in a Z-Pak. Despite calling him back after finishing the course of medicine, she was brushed off with a comment that the medicine would take an extra week to reach maximum efficacy. A few days later she was rushed to the local ER, where a spot the size of my fist was found in her lungs. Two days after that, the unchecked sickness claimed her earthly life.
You know, for all of my mother's brilliance, I know she never really knew just how many lives she touched and influenced for the better. And to those who say that time heals all wounds, I must respectfully point out that those people obviously never knew Janet Garey. Hers was a light that shone too br

10:39PM PST on Jan 28, 2012

It's been just over two years since my mother left us all a bit lonelier and sadder on this earth and, despite the passage of time, it hasn't gotten one bit easier. I constantly think of my last moments with her. I remember I went to her ICU room in the hospital, saw her vitals and knew that her body could not hold on. When I saw her for that last time, I took her hand and whispered in her ear what she needed to hear and what I needed to say, "It's okay to let go, Mom. You don't have to be in pain any more. Lexie and I will survive. We will find a way. I swear to you we will be okay. But now you have to go be with your daddy. I love you. Be at peace. Go home."
I know my mom struggled for that time with me so that I could have closure and I cherish that she loved me so much that she fought against her own body to give me what peace she could. Simultaneously, I am SO angry with her. Angry that she was my world and that it was gone in an instant. Angry that Lexie loved her Nana with all her heart and suddenly Nana disappeared. I am ashamed to admit that there are even times when I am angry that I promised her I'd keep fighting to survive. It's selfish of me, undoubtedly, and I vow that there is nothing in this world or any other that would make me leave my Lexie (and, as of December 10, 2010, the newest addition to my family, Charlotte Rory), but there are times when all I want to do is curl up, fall asleep and never awaken. But of the many, many Janet-isms that have kept me g