For Jane -
God holds you in the palm of his hand, and our family holds you always in the depths of our hearts.

A memory from Jeff -

Jane was home for a few days when I noticed that it was quiet in the house, Jeff was outside playing and Jane was no where to be found. I walked over to Mary Ann's to see if she had gone over there, she didn't so I kept looking to see where she may have gone. Steve got in the car and started driving around the neighborhood, Jeff noticed that my bike was gone. Jane had taken my bike and disappeared! Mary and I were talking about where she might go and we both came up with the same thought at the same time. The Cemetery! Thank goodness we didn't live too far from there and the traffic in Eagle Grove was minimal at best, Steve took off and caught up with her at the outskirts of town. He rolled down the window and told her to get back home or she was going to be grounded for life!! (It worked for Jeff) She just looked at him with her little smile and said "NOOOOOO", she had a way of saying no with a little laugh in the middle. Steve loaded her up in the car and took her to the cemetery so she could see that nothing had changed. What a little imp.

When Jane was born =

Jane was the 9th child in a family 10, both grandma's lived with us and it was definitely a blessing. Jane was born very tiny and fragile, the grandma's carried her on a pillow and she slept in a shoe box. She did not know how to nurse, so the grandma's took turns sitting up with her and feeding her with an eye dropper. Can you imagine the tender loving care she received from those two wonderful women of God! Dorene said that she can remember Mom's mother sitting in the rocker with Jane on her arm and her prayer book in her other hand praying in German. It was only through the grace of God and the Grandma's that she survived. Mom had no idea why she did not develop like the other children, so when Jane was about three years old, she took her on a train to Iowa City to have the doctors look at her. After several tests, they came back and told Mom that Jane had "Down Syndrome" and that she would never live to adult hood and she would never fit into our large family. They suggested that Mom take her to Woodward (which was an institution for the handicapped) and leave her there to live out her life.
Mom looked at the doctor, stood up and said "You are the one who should be at Woodward! If you think that I am going to take my child there, you are sadly mistaken." She took Jane by the hand, walked out and never went back to Iowa City again.
Jane was the main person in our family, she was the reason we all stayed together - she had a way of letting everyone know that she loved them with the the special names she had for them. And she lived a long full life, with many friends and lots of family around her all the time.
She was pure in her thoughts, she was not capable of hurting anyone intentially or sinning against God. If someone did something to her, she forgot and forgave it quickly and continued on. We should all take a lesson from this special angel.

Ohhh, Jane!

Well, you all know that Jane loved to brush her teeth, or her lack of teeth. She had just enough left to pull and chew with, maybe around six; but those six teeth got the best brushing in the world. She would go through about a half a tube of toothpaste each day, and of course some of that toothpaste got swallowed along with air which gave her gas. And she didn't hold anything back when it came time to release that gas.
Her favorite staff person at Handicap Village was Jeannie Clark (City Park in Jane language) and one of the chores on Jane's list was grocery shopping for the group home. One day she and "City Park" where in the grocery store, Jeannie was looking at something and Jane left a toot with A LOT of volume! The manager was stocking in the next isle, heard the noise and peeked around the corner. Of course by this time, Jane had moved on and Jeannie was standing alone in the isle - she looked up and shrugged. What could she do??? (We had so many laughs over the antics of Jane)

I loved Jeannie Clark, she was the same physical age as Jane and they were best friends. She was so kind and great with Jane, she sat at the hospital with the family during Jane's last days and cried along with the rest of us. Jeannie died 6 months after Jane with the exact same symptom, an aneurysm on the brain ,only Jeannie died immediately. I will always be grateful to Jean for her love and support of Jane!

We are coming to an end of Jane's month-

Jane loved birthdays - this one is for Artie, from left to right we have Cindy & Diane, Jane, JoEllen and Artie. It is Artie's birthday, but Jane thought she was the only one who should have a birthday. She wanted to be independent, so of course that involved money and Pop thought she should have a couple of dollar bills (pennies in Jane language) to help her reach that goal. So when we celebrated Jane's birthday, celebrated Christmas or any other holiday, Jane would receive cards with "Pennies" in and she was absolutely ecstatic. Give her a $5 bill, she would turn her nose up; but give her 5 ones and you were her best friend for ever!!!! And when the "pennies" were gone she was "brokee".

Angela, come on down - it's your day!

Angela, happy birthday!! You have accomplished so much with your research and yet you remain so humble and our sweet Angela. I take my hat off to you, keep up the good work, Dr. Angela!

Church and Jane -

Every Sunday morning Handicap Village had a van that would take everyone to their respective churches, Jane would ride with them and get off at the Catholic Church walked over two blocks to the Baptist Church for coffee and donuts and then she would go over a block to the Methodist Church for their coffee and donuts. They would always wrap up the left overs and send them with her, she would walk back to the Catholic church and get picked up. She had enough stash to keep her in sweets for the rest of the week. Now tell me is that smart or what???

There are just sooo many stories!

When Jane went to Handicap Village, she found out what real friendship was all about. Of course she was raised as any other member of the family, nothing was wrong with her and she did her fair share around the house. All the clients living at the Village had little jobs that they were responsible for and Jane's job was to help out in the "Snack Bar". One evening Jane went to her cottage and her stocking hat was sitting little high on her head. Jeanie Clark, the "House Parent" at the time asked Jane what was wrong with her hat, "I don't know" was her reply. "Jane, what do you have under your hat?" She got that cute little grin and took her hat off, and out toppled a banana, chips and cookies. What a character!!

I know I missed Rhonda's Day!

There you are holding that precious Michael, it was a pleasure getting to know you better during the Reunion. You are a pleasure and a real help-mate to Ken. Just in case you didn't know, you are loved and welcome to the family.

More Jane -

That's Jane in the front and everyone is looking at her - that is me on the seat being held by Mary Ann. I wonder if that is the first bike? Anyway as you can see is five years older than me, however we grew up together. We were inseparable, we did everything together and I was her "baby". When I started school, she was heart broken she couldn't go with me so Mom set up a little desk at the top of the stairs so she could do "homework" while I was in school. I think that is how she got such a good loop on her writing. She never got over carrying many, many writing tablets with her wherever she went. Sometimes she would have boxes of books, and she wouldn't leave without them.
Oh, the rest of the little crew is: top left to right - Bernadette, Frank, Mary Ann - bottom, Jane and Mark. Weren't' we a cute bunch?

More Jane Humor -

It was Christmas time, there is nothing better than Christmas!!!! Jane was home for the holidays, Mom, Steve and myself were sitting in the living room watching Mom's favorite movie - "The Bells of St. Mary's" with Bing Crosby. Jane has a 'snack attack' and she goes into the kitchen to make a sandwich, she loved to make and eat tuna salad. It was something she could make without using the stove or any other hurtful, harmful tools. She got out the bread, got out a can of tuna and went to the refrigerator for the mayonnaise, she removed the cap and the jar slipped from her fingers and hit flat on the floor. The mayo of course flew out the top and all over her pants. Shortly there was a little voice that said, "Ohhhh, sit". I thought Mom and Steve were going to roll on the floor laughing.

Yup, It's Lindy's birthday too!

Yup that's Jeff on the left (red hair gives him away) and Lindy on the far right - nice to share a birthday with a cousin.


Lindy at the reunion with her son Landen, who seems to be either sleeping in every picture or wired. (I guess thats why he needs so much sleep to "keep on going". Just a typical boy, full of energy!


Lindy enjoying some quiet time and visiting with family. Your grandma (Dorene) really enjoyed having you with her for so long.

OK, now it's Jeff's birthday - yahoo!!

Minutes after Jeff was born - look at that frown he is giving his dad. Notice the TV in the background, it is displaying the time, date and temperature - accidental but cool.


Jeff learning to push stuff around - I think he is still pushing stuff around today.

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Look at that adorable little boy!!

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Jeff & Patti (his adorable wife) just before their wedding on the beach.

Jane & Jeff hamming for the camera -

This picture was taken at Christmas time 1993, Jane and Jeff were making faces for the picture. Sometimes it was like having twins with those two, they would tattle on each other all the time. The hardest part for Jeff was keeping his room clean and picked up because when Jane came home she would love to go into Jeff's room and straighten it up. Most things were never to be found again! As long as it was out of sight, it was clean. One time I turned the oven on to find out Jane put a tuperware container of cookies in there to keep the counter clean. Needless to say, all was lost.
Jane's favorite phrase when she got tired of someone, she got tired, or they talked way more that she thought they should was "Ohh, sut up!"

Melissa, I hear it's your birthday!

This is a family picture of Artie's family, it is Artie, Mary, Jonathon, Teresa and Melissa - it was so good to see them again and they came all the way from Arizona for the week-end. Melissa, I hear you went back up to Eagle to help move your
Grandma Dorene into a nursing home and help Uncle Ronnie. You are a true blessing to everyone you meet - keep up the good work!


This is a great picture of you, your Mom, Jane and Grandma, Dorene. Everyone looks so young (including you), Jane and Dorene looked great. What a neat picture!!!
Thanks, Mary for sending it to me.

Not only tax day - but Aiden's birthday too!

Hold on Aiden, Nadia is going to take you for a spin around the farm - at warp speed. Watch that bottle, don't let it go, you will definitely need it when you're back with your parents. Aiden and his sister had a great time at the family reunion, many things to do and places to go. Oh, by the way your Dad is Dustin and your grandma is Cindy.
Way to go Cindy, he is adorable!!!

Holy Cow!

I just got an email for a new product - iRobot has a "gutter cleaner"!
I think every one of us, at one time in our life was issued the order by Grandma to climb up on the roof of the house and clean out the gutters. NOW they come out with a product to do the work for us!!!!!!
Good grief - however, it was kind of fun to run around the roof like that with permission.

Happy Birthday Jane -

Artie, this is the picture your mother was responsible for - isn't Jane adorable and of course the other person is me.
Thanks, Dorene and Bernadette for taking the time for us.

Another Jane Story -

Mom had surgery on her knee and was still not getting around very well, Jeff was about three years old and I decided to take Jane and Mom out to see Dundet (Bernadette). Of course any of you who ever travelled with Jane knew that as soon as we hit the road the first words out of her mouth were "hamburger?" We get about as far as Carroll and we stop at Mom's favorite restaurant "Tony's" I get out of the car the same time Jane does, she heads for the restaurant and I tell her to wait for us, of course she doesn't cause she's independent now. I go around and help Mom out of the car and get Jeff out, I'm holding on to Mom, so she won't fall, Jeff takes off one direction and Jane is still heading into the restaurant. By the time I get Mom inside and Jeff rounded up, Jane is seated in a booth looking at us like "what took you so long?" (What was I thinking????)

Happy Birthday Jim -

Yup, it's Jim's birthday too - the same day as Jane. Jim is of course the great white hunter, deer, elk or anything else you find in cold Idaho country. He and JoEllen love it out there, even though they sent pictures this past winter and you could hardly see the top of the fence posts. Yikes, too much snow for me!!! (Of course, I haven't seen snow or below freezing temperatures for a really long time.)
Happy birthday Jim, enjoy your day and hope you have a great one.

Lisa sent me an email about a "Jane" story -

The cute little boy in front of Jane is Frank, "Cork" in Jane language.
Lisa remembered when they were home visiting and Jane was going through the period of sleeping late in the morning, sometimes past noon and would stay up most of the night. Mom had dinner ready and wanted Jane to get up so they could all eat together; "Cork" started calling Jane, going to her bedroom trying to get her to get up. Finally he went in, grabbed the sides of the mattress and dumped her out on the floor. That got her up and going, and more than a little mad at "Cork", but it was Saturday and the night for Lawrence Welk so all's well that ends with Lawrence Welk!

Jane & Frank

Jane is standing behind Frank in the first family portrait, can you believe how cute Frank was!! And look at little Jane, how precious.
Remember all the books with her writing in, lots of loops, she had tons of books filled with her special language, they were probably best sellers in Heaven.
I will never forget the time I took Jane shopping for Christmas presents and somehow she got one of Mom's check book. We went to Spangler clothing in town (remember Spangler & Reil Clothing?) and we picked out something for Pop, Jane whipped out the check book from her purse and proceeded to write a check in her special looping hand writing. She tore it off and gave it to Ken Spangler, he looked at it and then looked at Jane and then back at the check. I stood there watching the interaction and finally I said, "What, don't you think it's any good?"

I need more "Jane" stories - come on you guys fess up, I know there are a million out there!!!

Remember when Jane would get tired of whoever was visiting at the time and she would come out of the bedroom and look at her broken watch and say, "ten tirdy, go home!"
Or Saturday night with Lawrence Welk and the house had to look good with all the doilies on every piece of furniture. And how did she know every album she had and where the music could be found on that album? She knew exactly how many she had and what they were - don't think for a minute that you could put something over on her.

Jared

Jared, (son of Brian & Dawn) I don't know you very well but I do know that you are the apple of your mom and dad's eye. You were named after both your grandfathers and what an honor. Have a wonderful day!

Jane's month!

OK, I admit, I have been looking forward to this month for a long, long time - this month is Jane story time!!!
I know there are some great "Jane" stories out there, you all have them - so come on send them to me.

I will begin with one on Jane when she was out visiting Bernadette (Dundet in Jane language), Chris and Kurt were quit young ( I don't think Monica as born yet, but maybe). Bernadette was driving someplace with everyone on board and she made a wrong turn into an area of town that was a little rough and Bernie told everyone to lock the doors and keep their hands to themselves. Bernie looked in the review mirror and there was Jane, smiling and waiving like Queen Elizabeth. So much for keeping a low profile!