| Subject: janice ansell (mcguire) may 12 1948 - may 29 1992 |
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Date Posted: 19:05:38 09/14/10 Tue
janice ansell (mcguire) may 12 1948 - may 29 1992
let me begin with honesty. janice would have liked that.
i never attended eastchester high. i knew janice for less than three years. i had neither seen nor spoken
with her for the remaining twenty years of her life.
in fact i did not learn of her death until a few days ago, eighteen years onwards. a foot surgery kept me
chairbound for a few weeks, and i decided to use that time to look up old friends and coworkers on the
internet. when i looked up janice i found myself on the eastchester high website.
it was there i learned that janice had passed away. i am not ashamed to say i burst into tears - something i
didn't do when my younger brother died of cancer at nearly the same age as janice - and have been in and
out of tears for the past few days.
searching the internet, i found her sister cindy (eastchester high class of 1968). we talked quite a bit - she and my wife used to work together. she gave me janice's husbands' phone number, and i spoke with him,
but briefly, probably because i couldn't stop crying during our conversation. here is what i learned about
her death - and her life.
janice was part of the eastchester high class of 1966. she joined my company - technicon corporation in
tarrytown - in 1969. in between she went to secretarial school and most probably had a job somewhere
else. i was in the data processing department, which consisted of about fifteen guys. janice came to us as
our secretary. she quickly became our 'little sister', our 'mascot', our 'girl friday'.
janice was very pretty; she stood out in a company in which there were several hundred single girls. but it
was her personality that was her most striking asset. janice was the kindest, sweetest, nicest person i have
ever known. forty years later, i have yet to meet her equal. most of the guys in the department were
married - i was 'involved' with another girl. but i'm sure every one of us was in love with janice. i know i
was.
i had one date with janice. we went to a beach on long island and then to a restaraunt in manhattan. i
even stole a kiss. but when that day was over, i knew what i had to do. i knew i should never ask janice
out again. janice was a princess. and a princess should have a prince. and i was not a prince. we came
from different backgrounds, and i had a 'past' that i knew i could never burden her with. she deserved
better than me. but to this day i still wonder about what might have been, wonder if i should have asked
her for a second date.
janice left the company in 1972. i never spoke to her or saw her ever again. but i never forgot her. and
the time i had spent with her has changed my life forever. i believe that any kind deed i have ever done
for anyone, any kind words i have ever spoken, comes from the way she influenced me during our time
together. to this day she remains one of the greatest influences on my life. and this in only three years.
janice went to work for exxon. i think she worked there for about nine years. she met her future husband,
bill mcguire. they married, lived in long island for awhile, then moved to new jersey. she gave birth to
two children, first a boy and then a girl. i have been told that the girl is very beautiful; i pray that she
looks and acts just like janice - the world would be better for it.
when janice was just forty three, she became ill. doctors were unable to determine the cause. it wasn't
until it got very serious that they diagnosed her with adrenal cancer. it is a rare form of cancer (one in a
million) and not easy to diagnose. it is also, or at least was at that time, fatal.
janice died within six months. just writing those five words is making me cry again.
her husband was left to raise their small children. her son was, i think, ten years old at the time; her
daughter, younger. bill has never remarried. i can understand why. there's not a person on earth who
could replace her.
if you would like to visit janice, her mortal remains may be found in the cemetary of our lady of the
mountains roman catholic church in little valley new jersey. but you will not find her soul there. her soul
resides in a special place in heaven, where only the very best of us can hope to be.
and we are left with memories of janice. i think about her every day now. and if i live to be one hundred,
there may never be a day again when i don't think of her. janice was the kindest, sweetest, nicest person i
have ever known in the nearly seventy years i have spent here on earth.
i pray for her family and friends, and especially her children, that they might take comfort in the
knowledge that they had spent at least a little time with her while she was with us.
god rest your soul, janice. you were the finest person i ever knew.
- mike toledano
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