Susan MacDonald( Dillman)
Musselman, Janice Rose (Bellefontaine) – 66 It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden, tragic passing of a wonderful wife, devoted mother and proud Nana on the 15th of March, 2015. Born in Dartmouth on the 4th of March, 1949, Jan enjoyed a wonderful childhood on the shores of Lake Banook. She spent her early school years at St. Peters, but it wasn’t until she went to Prince Andrew High School that she blossomed. At that time she began a lifelong habit of volunteering for clubs, committees and sports teams, where she made many lifelong friendships, especially the ladies in the vintage investment club and her stitch group. During her professional career as an X-Ray technologist, Jan continued her volunteer work serving on many professional boards including a term as provincial chair for the National CAMRT conference in the early 90’s in Halifax. In typical fashion, she organized the best conference attended in years. Such was the case with high school reunions, church committee’s or family celebrations at the camp on Porters Lake. She had a joy for baking, entertaining and spoiling her grandchildren and was never one to miss a function. An avid traveller, Jan enjoyed many vacations and adventures over her life and was able to visit many corners of the Earth. Jan was respected & loved as the supervisor of the X-Ray technologists at the IWK Hospital. She will be missed by all of the people she worked with. Jan leaves behind her husband of 26 years Keith, daughter Nikki Hilton (Mark Vautour), sons Tim Hilton (Katie Hilton) & Bill Musselman (Gilann Lafreniere), sisters Shirley Woodley (Jim) & Maureen Henley (Jim), brother Paul Bellefontaine (Sherry), granddaughters Charlotte, Reese, Caroline & Grace, grandson Emmett and many special nieces, nephews and friends. She was pre-deceased by her parents Earle & Evelyn Bellefontaine (LaPierre), brother Larry Bellefontaine (Leslie) & Nephew Robert Bellefontaine. Visitation will be held at Woodlawn United Church, 54 Woodlawn Rd., Dartmouth on Friday March 20th from 2-4pm and 7-9pm. Funeral service will be held at Woodlawn United Church at 11am on Saturday March 21st. Donations can be made in her honour to Woodlawn United Church or the Heart & Stroke Foundation. Condolences, words of comfort, and remembrances of Jan may be shared with the family at www.forevermissed.com/janice-rose-musselman.
Tributes
Leave a tributeSusan MacDonald( Dillman)
Linda Jobe (X-ray technologist, Truro).
John & Debbie
We are sending along our sincere condolences to your family Maureen on the sad loss of your sister Janice. She is in our Lord's hands now and enjoying eternal peace. We are thinking of you at this difficult time.
I am so sorry to hear of the loss of your mom. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family at this very sad time.
As everyone else I am in total shock to hear of Janice's passing. I remember many good times we all spent together so many years ago both at the house and at the cottage. In those days you were all my extended family and I felt that Janice was the sister I never had. She was such a happy person. To you and the Hilton/Musselman families I express my deepest sympathy.
Linda Roskell
We're so sorry to hear of the loss of your mom. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and all of your family.
My heart aches for you in the loss of your Mom all too soon. I knew Jan as a trusted colleague for many years at the IWK and as someone you could always count on in DI. Her legacy of fun and love of life obviously lives on in you. Your love with her will be forever real. Take care my friend and know that others care about you very much at this difficult time.
Elizabeth and I would like to express out most sincere condolences in your loss. Jan was a wonderful person who touched everyone whom she met. We are so saddened by her passing. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family during this difficult time.
I was so deeply saddened to learn of Jan's passing. She was a remarkable human being! She filled her 66 years always to the brim. I had only recently reconnected with Jan and was so looking forward to continuing our early evening walks when the weather improved. I will miss her but her memory will live strong as I picture her laughing, and telling stories as I continue to walk without her. God bless!
Doug & Brenda Byrne-Richard (aunt to Gilann Lafreniere)
I remember Janice getting on the old Dart.Transit to go over to the Infirmary for X-Ray school. Then as she became involved in the NS CAMRT I worked with her at various times. She was always so capable and able to take on projects. Always cheerful. Being at the VGH our paths crossed at meetings very often. Our paths crossed again at Woodlawn United and Janice again became very involved in the life and work of the church. She had time for everyone and the love for her family was evident in her gracious manner.
Great memories
Our sincere condolences
Alan and Mona Ellis
~Tina
June and Mike Doyle
Gary and Lois
We would like to extend our deepest sympathies on your loss! How heart-breaking for your family. May your many memories and support from friends and families provide some comfort for you.
Dell and Barb Corbett
My deepest condolences to you and your family. Remember,
Those we love do not go away, they will walk beside us everyday.
We are so sorry to hear the sad news. Jan will be missed by many. she was always a positive and upbeat person who was fun to work with and be around. When she entered a room her personality filled it!
Marlene & Wayne Warren
Ed
Our deepest condolences to you and your family. A wonderful and thoughtful lady has just left us. She will be missed and never forgotten. Another "Angel" to watch upon us all. So many memories. All our Love Dale and Val Silvester
Please pass on our most sincère condolence to all members of your familly
Francoise et Daniel Normandin
Leave a Tribute
Susan MacDonald( Dillman)
Linda Jobe (X-ray technologist, Truro).
Audio Recording of Service
Tribute to Mom
Thank you all for coming today. Mom would be so honoured with the turn-out and all of the pomp & circumstance. She would have loved this so much that if she could have she would have wanted to do it all again next week.
While reading all of the tributes that have been pouring in I found a really nice quote that said "In the end we are all just stories". Mom certainly had a ton of stories and although we will all miss her, we will be able to remember her kindness, spunk and joy for life through all of the stories and memories we have.
I was thinking about all of the things I will miss about Mom and the list is endless. After reflecting, I've come up with a top 10 list of things I will miss most about her.
So without further adieu " The top 10 things I will miss about Mom Or the reasons that my Mom is better than yours are..."
10) Her love of Baking - Everyone who knew her, knew how much she loved to bake. Her baking was epic, and us kids often would find ourselves coming back for 2nds or 3rds whenever cookies, cakes or squares were made at home. I can remember one time in Junior High, she had baked a fresh batch of squares and had given Nikki, Bill and I a few before heading out for the evening. As soon as she was gone, we went to town on the squares and shortly after realized we had eaten the entire pan. Nikki and I panicked, knowing we would get it if Mom came home to no squares, so we found the recipe and went to work making a new batch. Once they were done, we knew we had to eat a few so it would look the same as it did before she left. But then we thought, there would be no way she would buy that we didn't eat any of them while she was out, so we had to eat a little bit more to make it believable. I definitely blame her for my love of sweets, but I will certainly miss her baking.
9) As my daughter Caroline would say "Nana loved to be fancy". She loved being fancy so much that she even wanted all of her words to sound fancy, often resulting in a mis-jan-unciation as we called them. Avon would become Ave-on, Home Deepot - Home depo and sautee - souday. We all loved poking fun at this and I will definitely miss all of her misjanunciations.
8) She was a fashion icon - She loved to dole out fashion advice to Nikki, Bill and I and would often lend Nikki clothes that she thought Nikki should wear. I can remember one time I was visiting her at the IWK while I was on a break from work. She took one look and me and said "Love the suit, love the shirt, hate the shoes" She immediately took me out to get new shoes to make sure I was stylin again. I will definitely miss her fashion advice.
7) Mom loved a good deal. She would always find nice "high end" items for a steal, but would never buy any "cheap crap". One Christmas we were over at Mom's opening our stockings, because even at 33 she still would make a stocking for me, and my wife Katie opened a pack of napkins. Mom mentioned to her "Now, these are not dollar store napkins, these are high end napkins". Later in the day Katie noticed the price tag was still on them for $1.00. They definitely weren't from the dollar store, but she had gotten a good deal.
6) She loved to spoil her grandkids with treats, cookies and candy. Anytime she was anywhere they would be, she would have a treat on hand. They were always a mixture of fresh homemade items, or fresh baked goods from the market - in fact, someone might want to warn the ladies at the market that their businesses might take a bit of a dip. My daughter Grace was talking about Mom the other day and said "Nana always brought mini marshmallows to church for us. She won't be able to do that anymore. Mommy, you can do it though" So I guess the torch has been passed!
5) She was a great cook and she knew it. If we were out to dinner, while she loved being treated, we could hear her say "I can make this better and for way less". At dinners at home, she would often comment on the cooking. It usually went something like this "These potatoes are delicious" Someone would reply, "yes they are awesome, who made them" She would pipe up with "ME, compliments to the chef". I certainly will miss her cooking.
4)She knew how to get her point across and ensure you knew what to do about it, even if it were only one word, a noise or a look. If you ever had the privilege of getting the look, you know what I mean. With a simple sigh or a "sayin" you knew where she stood on the subject and you knew what had to be done.
3) Her love of Holidays, especially Christmas - She was our little Christmas elf, who loved spreading Christmas cheer wherever she went. Her gifts were wrapped exquisitely, She always wore jingle bells and started planning for Next Christmas as soon as the current Christmas had ended. There were always a multitude of Christmas events and she loved each one of them from the trim a tree night, to Christmas dinner, her open house party and even cousins night, which she wasn't invited too, but definitely wanted to be there. She loved hosting Christmas dinners and last year was no exception. As usual everything was organized perfectly, even down to who would be helping with the pass out and clean up. Everyone would chose a job from the jar, whether it be take orders, pour the wine or the worst job of all, wash dishes. Even special guests were not exempt from helping and when her international exchange student chose wash dishes, he was expected to do it, which he did. Christmases definitely won't be the same.
2) She loved playing dress up and she ensured her grandkids loved that too, often bring over old clothes for them to play around in. She loved dressing in costume, whether it be Halloween or not. In fact the night Keith and my Mom met, they were at a costume party. Keith met Tina Turner that night but unfortunately discovered the next day that Tina was a single mother with 2 kids. Despite this, he stuck around and we will definitely miss her costumes.
1)Her love of life. She crammed 99 years of living in to her 66 years. She lead by example and taught me how to work hard. On our headstones we always list the birth date and date of death but what is most important is the dash in between. While Mom's dash was shorter than it should have been, it was overflowing with life and it's those great times that we will always cherish.
Thanks
Tribute from Jacquie Cooper
My dearest Keith, Nikki, Timmy, and Billy, and your families.
It is with a very heavy heart I write this to you. I feel compelled to share some of my thoughts, and memories of Jan.
I met Jan when she came to live in Bridgewater, Jackie, Introduced us and we all became great friends. Jan had a bigger than life personality, she was highly energetic, happy, and so much fun to spend time with. I remember one dinner party in particular when she arrived as Nana Mouskouri, dressed to the hilt, dark glasses, with a recording that she lip synced to. It was to good to be true. We had many wonderful times together. We shared all aspects of our lives, like me she was an x- Ray technologist and we both had two children. We worked, played, laughed and cried together. In those days we were almost inseparable. During good and bad times we counted on each other and supported our decisions right or wrong. We shared lives, children, stories, secrets, gossip (I am ashamed to say), with lots of glasses of wine.
Family was everything to Jan, and her immediate family I came to know and love. Her mom, sisters, brothers, and Auntie Bee a force to be reckoned with, Jan had a lot of Aunt Bee's qualities in her personality. She was always there to help, lend a hand and support anyone who needed it. She was a loving, giving person, kind, compassionate, fun, funny and a very good friend. Jan had a softer, gentle quiet side that she showed to her dearest friends and family. She was good at almost everything. Who here in this room has not enjoyed many of her baking delights. Organizing and entertaining came naturally to her and she loved a house full of people.
When Jan met, fell in love and married Keith, she found her place in life. Keith brought a calmness to her and was her anchor becoming the ying to her yang. They were a good team, and brought out the best in each other. They shared many good and hard times and now it will be difficult to think of Keith without Jan. Two peas, so very different, but in the same pod.
Over the years our friendship has taken us in different directions. The strength of good friendship comes with the knowledge that when we meet again, it will be like only yesterday. We share history, a past, love, devotion and perhaps the most important we take comfort in knowing that we love each other no matter what.
In closing what can I say but I, like everyone in this room, am in shock over her passing. I loved Jan, will miss her and even though I did not see her often the knowledge that I cannot is hard to accept.
For Keith, Nicki, Tim, Billy their partners, the wonderful grandchildren and all her family and friends I grieve with you all. It is long journey to acceptance of loss, one day at a time. A very bright and shining light has left this earth. It will our tremendous loss but heavens gain, an angel with golden wings, she is already flying off meeting everyone there. She is no doubt organizing a welcoming party, and I pray she is hugging my David for me, at least that is what I would like to believe.
I will hold my cherished memories close to my heart and pray for your comfort.
I leave you all with parts of two stories I read to my grandchildren by Nancy Tillman and Robert Munsch.
Nancy Tillman's first page begins " I wanted you more than you will ever know, so I sent love to follow you wherever you go "
" you are my angel, my darling, my star......my love will find you wherever you are."
And Robert Munsch's book I take liberty to change
I love you forever
I like you for always,
As long as I' m living
My friend you'll be.
Rest in Peace my dear friend Jan, you will be missed...........
Jacquie