My friend had the privilege of going to heaven on August 15, 2024.  I’m not even sure how old she was, but that’s irrelevant because she was always young at heart.  We had been friends forever!  I was at work when I heard about her death.  I tried not to cry.  I wasn’t sad for her; she fought hard these last years against pancreatic cancer.  I felt extreme grief over the loss we will all feel.  As I will be out of the country for her memorial service, I wanted to share my thoughts for all of you who knew her.

My first thought about Jan Fox Davis is that she loved fiercely.  Oh yes.  She would cross the ocean or climb the highest mountain for her children.  They were her everything.  They came first.  She also loved 3 husbands fiercely – because even though the first two marriages resulted in divorce, I know she battled hard to make the relationships work.  She didn’t like divorce and worked valiantly to save those marriages.  When grandchildren came along, I watched Jan embrace the role of Grammy and loved on them even more fiercely.  She stayed strong and helped buttress Aleea, Wesley, and Asher as Aleea fought her cancer.  With Aleea’s passing, she fiercely loved even more on Asher to let him know his momma Aleea loved and will always love him and that she would help him grow on without her.  She also loved Nelson, her third husband and partner and friend with unbridled passion ‘til the very end.  She even embraced HIS children and grandchildren and counted them as her own.  Jan also loved her Lord and Savior with all her heart.  She believed in prayer and was the greatest prayer warrior ever.  Her faith was unfailing. 

Jan was also profoundly strong and never saw the brick wall.  When things got tough, she would find another way.  As a physical therapist, I know she worked tirelessly with patients and if they couldn’t do things one way, she’d find another way to help them gain strength or build skills.  As a single woman and mom, she faced periodic financial challenges and always found a way to get around them.  When faced with breast cancer, she fought and plowed ahead and came out stronger than when she started.  There was never any wall in her way that she wouldn’t try to find another way to keep moving on and go beyond.  With her own fight with pancreatic cancer, she kept going and fighting and finding ways to beat the odds. 

Jan embraced life.  We roller skated together with our families.  She and I raced our sailboat together.  We vacationed together.  She traveled places that she wanted to go including following her children to California and Colorado to see them and her grandchildren.  She rode bikes with Nelson, and they traveled as much as they could together, sometimes even when she was battling pain from her cancer.

I will miss Jan greatly.  Fortunately I have the best of memories of our friendship.  My heart breaks for those she loved and left behind.  Please know that she loved you all fiercely.  What a great lesson for all of you!  She also would break down the brick wall for any of you.  Don’t ever feel like you can’t go on.  There’s always a way to keep going.  Be strong.  And please do as Jan did and embrace life.  It is a blessing for each day that God gives us as we wake up to whatever the day may bring. 

I love you fiercely my friend Jan.  You fought long and hard.  I’m jealous as you reunite with our Lord and get to embrace your sweet Aleea.  Say ‘Hi! and I love you” to Amanda for me.

just Laurel

Less than a month after Amanda died, Jan took Ted and I on a double date to go to a painting class. She knew we had to get out, get going, get on with living, and embrace life. Poignant that we were painting trees … something living and growing.