Jane Edwy Jabez

Obituary

Our beloved mother, Jane Jabez, died peacefully on March 5, 2023, at age 93. Jane leaves behind her five children, Jazlin Ebenezer, Jeeva Jonahs, Jegan Jabez, Jhansi Ganesan, and Janet Munu; her eleven grandchildren, Sudesh Ebenezer, Andrea Jonahs, Joshua Jabez, Jasmine Joseph (nee Jabez), Rita Shkullaku (nee Ganesan), Rajiv Ganesan; Prakash and Ramesh Ganesh; Sylvia, Shawn, and Steven Vedamani; and seven great-grandchildren, Celina Ebenezer; Aria and Michael Jabez; Evalin and Isabel Shkullaku; and Pia and Indira Pope-Ganesh.

Jane was preceded in death by her youngest daughter, Jill Vedamani; her husband, S.T. Jabez; and her older sister, Grace Flora Gomer.

Jane was born on October 6, 1929, in Kulasekarapattinam, India, to Baliah and Thangammal Jebamoni. She completed an Associate Arts degree and won the best student award for Logic at the American College in Madurai, India. She married S.T. Jabez (Tom) at the Prakasapuram SDA Church on August 20, 1947. Shortly thereafter they moved from Prakasapuram to Sri Lanka. They joined the Thambakara & Sons business, which owned various industries in India and Sri Lanka, including rice mills, a lumber mill, and the Three Flowers match factory. To her credit, Jane owned the Raja Handloom Weaving Mill, a cottage industry that employed many women.

The Sri Lanka Seventh-day Adventist church selected the couple as its lay delegates for the 1970 General Conference session in Atlantic City, New Jersey. On their way to the United States, they toured Europe, Israel, Egypt, and Canada. It was while in Canada, when visiting the late D.L. Ebenezer in British Columbia, the idea of making Canada their home was planted. He was instrumental in guiding their transition and supported them during those early days. He later married their oldest daughter Jazlin and became part of the family.

They started life in Canada with very little, but they had their faith in God and their faith in each other. With perseverance, they began their first business venture, a shake and shingle mill on the banks of the Fraser River in Mission, BC. The family-run business manufactured cedar roofing tiles, which were exported across the Western United States.

In many ways, Jane fulfilled all the duties of an ideal wife and mother. She raised her six children and then helped raise her grandchildren. She cooked, baked, cleaned, and sewed; planted vegetable gardens; and taught Cradle Roll class at church for many years.

Jane was also her husband’s trusted business partner, bringing her physical labor and ingenuity to all their ventures. They built many homes together, and Jane would install insulation, set drywall, and paint interiors with the skill of any contractor. When they began Celyinca Foods, she worked alongside her husband in developing and producing dozens of confectionary and snack products for the health market. These were distributed across the West Coast of Canada and the United States.

Jane had an aptitude for numbers and words; she had an accountant's eye when calculating costs, profit margins and balancing the books, and she was unbeatable at Scrabble.

Jane's relationship with Christ anchored her and the family. No matter what the day had in store, no matter how tired, home or away from home, every day started with Lord in the Morning, steady and slightly off-key, and ended with Abide with Me, scripture reading, and prayer. Jane prayed for her every child, every in-law, every grandchild, and every great-grandchild. But Jane didn’t only rely on prayer, she was a woman of action, supporting many individuals in India with education, wedding expenses, medical needs, and debt relief from predatory lenders.

In 2014, after 44 years in Canada, Jane and Tom moved to Loma Linda, California to live with Jeeva and to be closer to their children. Jane spent the last years of her life at Heritage Garden nursing home. She enjoyed watching sermons on 3ABN, playing Bingo and Scrabble, coloring floral designs, and giving them as gifts. She loved having visitors. "We love your mom" was a common sentiment among staff and residents. Jane was courageous with an energetic disposition and a caring spirit. In the last years of her life, Jane developed a close friendship with her roommate, Tammy who reached out to her with kindness.

The Seventh-Day Adventist faith, and telling everyone about it, was her passion. Even at the nursing home, she never missed an occasion to tell someone to keep the Sabbath Day holy and to be ready because Jesus was coming soon. She remained faithful until the very end.