Page 13 - Philly Girl

Philly Girl xiii

Foreword

Janice and I were friends for more than 45 years. We met as
“Philly Girls” and then cemented our friendship in our New
York City days in the mid-to-late 1970s. We would walk all
over the city together, and wherever we went, Jani would
connect with people. There was something about her. She
listened. She zeroed in on people with her eyes, her megawatt
smile, nodding her head while people talked to her, and in
a New York minute people would tell her intimate details
about their lives. Life was always interesting and fun when
you were in her company.
Jan went on to become a California girl as well. I was sad
when she moved to the opposite coast, but we would always
get together when she came back east to visit her mom—and
we’d have the same epic get-togethers, meeting at some fabu-
lous restaurant (she always did her research!) and talking for
hours, catching up on everything.
When Jan was diagnosed with cancer in 2014, she
acknowledged a formidable foe, but determined that it
would not define her. Over the next four years—through
surgeries, hospitalizations, radiation, and various radical
treatments—she lived her life and kept her spirits up—with
the help of her family and a wonderful network of friends.
She kept moving. She continued to dance with her beloved
Rhythm and Motion community. She worked. And while
her diagnosis was a reminder—to her, and to anyone who
knew her—that none of us knows what lies ahead, Jani let
nothing stop her from continuing to live her life the way she
loved to live it. Her hold on life was tenacious. Between her
inner strength and her husband Dennis’s intrepid research
into yet another clinical trial that might save her, I kept