Janna was born on Mother's Day. She was one of those kids who embraced life and all it had to offer. She took all she could from it and gave what she took to everyone around her. Janna loved being the center of attention. Once she admitted that her horrible childhood temper tantrums happened because she couldn't stand it if everyone wasn't paying attention to her. She was very difficult until she reached the age of twelve and then she was miraculously transformed into the sweetest young woman you could ever dream of knowing.
Janna was involved in drama, track, ROTC, and academic decathlon activities and she had an awesome clown collection. She was a combination aunt and surrogate mother to her sister Sarah's three children, all of whom worshipped her and her fiancé, Christian A. Ward. She was deeply spiritual. She never spouted her religion, but several of her friends wrote to us after her death and told us she had introduced them to the Lord and that they had become Christians because of her. They also wrote that they never saw her without her deck of cards, her pool cue, and her ever-present bag of popcorn.
Janna had finished three years toward her degree in secondary education in French/Spanish and had just begun student teaching. She always lived in the international dorm. She loved those people who were either despised or ignored by the rest of the student body and thrived on helping them adjust to life in America.
Janna's greatest love through the years was Scottish Highland dancing. She traveled all over the country winning medals and trophies and at the time of her death was a certified teacher. To compete in Scottish dancing you have to be taught by a certified teacher and that teacher has to study and pass stringent exams given by a certified judge. Worldwide certification is through the British Association of Teachers of Dance.
Janna met Chris during her third year of college and by the time the school year was over we all knew he was the one she had chosen for her life partner. He proposed in July 1995 and they told us first. She just stood there giggling and looking happy and beautiful. We loved Chris and were thrilled with her choice. They didn't tell his parents, John and Sue, because they wanted to tell them in person and they were out of town on vacation. When his parents returned home, Janna and Chris headed to the Nebraska panhandle in his truck to visit them. They never got around to actually telling them about the engagement, but they did hint about shopping for a wedding dress. At the time, Chris's parents thought they were referring to the upcoming wedding of Chris's sister.
During their visit there, they borrowed one of John's motorcycles and went to the county fair. They met John and Sue at the fair and made arrangements for dinner. That was the last time anyone saw them alive. A pickup truck driving on the wrong side of the highway hit their motorcycle head-on, killing them both instantly. Janna was 21 and Chris was 22. The driver still cannot explain why he was on the wrong side of the highway and after completing 104 hours of community service at the local golf course, all charges were dropped against him.
Life as we knew it ended when Janna was taken from us, but we feel richer for having known her and thank God that He blessed us for 21 short years with her presence. Though she is no longer with us, her life continues to touch us every day.
Janna and Chris..."It's terrifying to care, of course, and the young man whom I once heard say to the girl whose hand he was holding, "Shit, I think I love you," in the ominous tones of someone declaring that he was coming down with the plague, probably put the fear that accompanies loving as graphically as it can be put."--Merle Shain, Some Men Are More Perfect Than Others
Mom's Musings..."We are permitted to grieve because we have been privileged to love. To escape grief at the cost of never having loved is too dear a price to pay."--Author Unknown
Janna's Scottish Dancing..."For one brief moment, she lives a dream: dancing into eternity."--from Janna's Journals
Janna's Photo Album..."You may chisel a boy into shape, as you would a rock, or hammer him into it, if he be of a better kind, as you would a piece of bronze. But you cannot hammer a girl into anything. She grows as a flower does."--John Ruskin
Chris's Photo Album..."What you're doing with a clown like me, is surely one of life's little mysteries. What did I do? What did I say, to turn your angel eyes my way?"--John Hiatt/Fred Koller, Angel Eyes