A friend of mine from high school died on June 4, 2007. It’s hard to believe it has been more than a year since Jane drew her final breath. To me she was such a remarkable person who made such a deep impression that she is still very much alive in my mind.
Jane had what we called juvenile diabetes (type one diabetes), but it never held her back. She got married, had two children and was a super mother, wife and friend. For a while, she lived a fairy tale life. But when the disease took her eyesight, her husband divorced her and the courts gave him custody of their sons. Can you imagine what that must have been like? You are in your thirties, you go blind and then you have those whom you most deeply love removed from your life. You are left alone, abandoned and in the dark. What would your reaction be?
Remarkably, Jane did not give up. She moved to St. Louis, went to the school for the blind and rebuilt her life. She also returned to college, earning an education degree. She even fell in love and married. This happened all after her blindness and after she had almost reached her fourth decade of life. For a while it seemed the fairy tale life had returned. But then it became a horror story.
Diabetes didn’t stop by taking her vision it took her kidneys next. Her husband, who also had diabetes, passed away three years ago. Yet this beautiful woman still continued to push on with life, stayed active in church, always led by her guide dog Garbo. A friend once approached this human beacon and said, “Jane, you’re my hero.” The diminutive blonde tilted her head to side and asked, “Why?” It seemed the one thing she could not see was how many lives she touched.
A Profile of one of my Heroes -- Janie Davis Shaberg
And then, on that June 2007 day Janie’s huge heart finally gave out.
This blind woman didn’t find a cure for cancer, never met a president and was hardly known outside the area where she lived. So why is she a hero to me? It is because I learned so much about life through her vision. That’s right, her vision!
I always knew Jane as Janie. My life with her revolved around high school experiences that were much too few. As I look back through more than thirty-five years the images of most of those people I knew during this time are hazy and undefined. Yet when my mind locks into Janie, I can so clearly see her smiling face and bright eyes is it as if she was standing in front me right now. And I can hear her too. Her voice was like a simple, uplifting melody that hung in the air long after she had disappeared. She was such a breath of fresh air that I still smile every t ime I think of her.
My memories of Janie are so sharply imprinted because my impressions of her were not only noted by my mind, they were felt in my heart. She was so sweet, and not the kind of surface sweetness that always rings hollow, rather hers was the sincere sweetness that poured from a person who cared deeply about others. And my how that love freely flowed from her heart. She was the kind of person who fearlessly reached out to those with disabilities and she found beauty where others saw nothing. Simply by observing her, I learned how to look into a person’s eyes and see their heart.
If you were an orphaned kitten or puppy, then Janie was your best bet for life. The same was true of people. If you were sad or discouraged, Janie was the person who could cheer you up and help you find the rainbows. There was not mean bone in her body and her heart was simply too large to be contained in her tiny body.
And how she could laugh! She found the humor in everything. When a church member asked this blind woman if she had ever seen her husband. Janie replied, “No. Is there something I should know?” Then, as a hush fell over the room, she laughed. It was her way of making light of something that would have held anyone else back. It was also her way of doing something more, and that was showing the world that appearances were not very important. It was what our spirits revealed that determined how we really looked. There is where real beauty is always uncovered.
To this day I believe that Janie was the most beautiful girl in our high school class. In my mind there is no doubt. Yet the essence of how beautiful she really was presented itself in the way she battled the demons that tried so hard to wreck her delicate life. She never gave up and never quit smiling. In high school I had no idea the insidious nature of the disease that ultimately took her from this world far too soon. I wish I had known it then, because I would have fully understood and appreciated her courage, determination and faith. But Janie didn’t show the pain, reveal the mountains that she had to climb each day or the illness that haunted her each night. She was simply too busy living — chasing the next dream or looking for the next ray of sunshine — to worry about the heavy price that came with each new breath. Thus none of us realized what a fragile being she was.
On December 31, 1970, I was blessed to welcome the New Year in with Janie. At midnight her smile — that whimsical, slightly bent, one-of-a-kind smile — lit up the room like a searchlight. I didn’t realize it then, but that moment reflected what Janie was always to be. She was and remains a beacon, a bright, shining gift from God that blessed us in such incredible ways that her image, personality, faith and determination remain in sharp focus. Thank you Janie for touching my life and leaving me so much richer for the experience. The world is a better place because you were here and I and countless others are better for having you in our lives.
I will not forget this hero who taught me how to view the world so differently. I will always remember this woman who by overcoming so much showed me how much potential I had in life. In fact, in my new novel Farraday Road there is a character named Janie who is beautiful, blind and wise. Thus, in so many ways, Janie’s spirit lives. I hope that the real Janie’s fictional counterpart can be as much of a teacher and inspiration as was Janie Davis Shaberg.
How I wish each of you could have known her.
Janie in high school.
Another shot of Janie in high school, this time with a much younger version of myself. You will note the smile that was almost always there.
Even after she lost her sight, Janie still found joy in her very trying life.
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