Helen Janzen

Helen – the third child of what would eventually be 6. Born in Coaldale, Alberta in 1935 in the heat of a July day – the 12th to be exact. A second daughter for George and Helen – 3 more girls to come: Johanna, Charlotte and Lorie joining eldest child Hilda and only son Jake. Brown hair, brown eyes with a little furrow in her brow already visible – Helen held a gaze that challenged the world, warned of a fierce intelligence, was desirous of joy, but wary that life would be no easy endeavour.

In 1942 when the dust storms drove out George and Helen from Coaldale, the family came to Abbotsford, B.C. - the place where Helen would grow up, leave and return to again and again, and where, one day in December, she would stay forever. The parents are farmers, George and Helen immigrants from Russia. The farm work: hard, endless, but also life affirming. 6 children, a small house, little money, 5 girls who laugh, bicker, are resentful for perceived injustices but yet united. Chickens, cows, pigs, crops, all to be tended daily plus household chores and hop picking in late Summer. Church - a break from the daily routine, a time to dress up, socialise, worship - something different. Helen and Johanna – one year apart. Helen – a country music fan, Johanna - Opera; the weekly fight about what to listen to on Saturday afternoon. Johanna allowed to finish Grade 13, Helen, a year older sent to work at Woodlawns Psychiatric Hospital – money needed for both to go to

Nursing School. Sacrifice, essential. School records highlight Helen’s academic ability. She can do it all. Sciences, Math, Language Arts – a veritable Renaissance woman.

Nursing School – another accomplishment and positions in Northern B.C., Vancouver and Switzerland. But it is not enough for her and she begins to draw, write and travel extensively. First in 1960 with Hilda via ocean liner to Europe and then seven years later she is gone for over a year visiting Turkey, Iran, India, Pakistan, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Greece, Yugoslavia, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. In Israel she and friend, Louise Coop, work on a kibbutz in Israel and spend a year nursing in Switzerland. Her nursing skills, extraordinary. Intelligent, analytical, precise and compassionate – she works with children, psychiatric patients and in emergency wards.

Yet, the difficult friendship, the long struggle to be at home in the body, to be at ease in the mind is beginning to catch up with her. The 1970’s for Helen: “No light, but rather darkness visible/ serv’d only to discover sights of woe.” She cannot live alone and goes to live first with her sister, Charlotte, then Hilda, then Lorie. A dark time, a fierce struggle, endless courage needed. Yet, in the darkness, glimmers of hope. Her character, her wit, her acerbic barbs, her keen mind indicates she is still there, still in the running. What unfathomable reserves of life force are required of her to climb out of the black jaws of depression. Never underestimate what that took – the relentless determination, the belief in life. A refusal to relinquish hope. Her lifelines: first and foremost, her character, then the 4 “fs”: family, faith, friends and Florence, her doctor.

Slowly she reemerges. Against all odds, she is able to re-engage with family. Nurses Hilda through her terminal illness, becomes a primary caregiver to her father, helps with the care of her great nephews and nieces, resumes nursing and works as a librarian. Helen’s dry humour returns – always laced though. Small of stature, but ever fierce. Always willing to opine on anyone, anything, at any time. Age does nothing to diminish her observations nor engagement with life – but always on her own terms. Woe to those who venture an opinion in opposition, who dare query – who throw down the gauntlet.

Yet, yet, while we praise the mind – the intelligence, the wit – this is really only the chaff. The grist lies in the endless grace, the everlasting love that Helen bestows on all of us, on those she loves in eternity and to her remaining family: siblings, Jake, Charlotte and Lorie, sister in law, Betty, nieces and nephews, Sonya, Stephen, Marcus, Elisa, Paula, Anthony, Cameron, Vanessa and Jay, many great nieces and nephews and to all her friends.

To Helen, we say with great love, Rest in Peace.

1.) Ode To Gabriel

https://vimeo.com/1147532683?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci

2.) Life of Helen Janzen

https://vimeo.com/1147534367?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci