She's been in my life for many decades. Couldn't say we were close friends but we "got" each other and the last ten years or so have been the best because she was my constant literary buddy.
I first met Jane and her husband, Len, when my husband Ken and I went to Community United Methodist Church in Casselberry. They were quite a couple. To me, Len was a smart, kind, fun, quirky guy. For as long as I knew him I never knew what he did for a living. He was mysterious.
Jane, on the other hand, was a writer all of her life. She wrote for the Sanford Herald for more than 25 years. She wrote and edited everything from business news to obituaries. And she was active in everything. She served all all kinds of boards. She was always "up."
Jane and Len met in high school in Winter Park, Florida, and I was told that, since Len didn't have access to a phone, he climbed a telephone pole and taped into the line to get in touch with Jane.
They married during WWII and moved to Casselberry, a town just north of Orlando, that Len's dad founded in 1927. Casselberry now has a population 30,000 people.
And, along the way she and Len had five children who are all outstanding in their own right - and they took excellent care of their parents - who lived almost 10 decades.
But the reason her passing has been my own personal loss is because, for the last several years, we corresponded regularly, sometimes daily, mostly on social media but in other ways as well. She consistently commented on every blog entry I wrote. Always smart. Always funny. Always interested. Always interesting. Right up to the very end of her long life.
Despite, to me, being very different people, Jane and Len had an amazing marriage and were constant companions. Len died a couple of years ago and, while she was devastated, Jane never missed a beat in our correspondence and her interest in the world and all those around her.
Once, a long time ago, Jane and Len, Ken and I went out to dinner. Len told us this story. They were in a plane headed for Hawaii when the plane developed engine trouble. As the plane, began to dive, they had to prepare for a crash landing in the Pacific. With their heads between their legs and tightly holding hands Len said, "Jane, we're either going to Hawaii or to heaven. But we're going together."
That time they made it to Hawaii - but it helps me to know that, even though they had to wait two years - this time they made it to heaven.
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