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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| Facebook is posting that the wife of Sheriff Pickell, Janet, lost her battle to cancer last night. I knew she was in at-home hospice. She was a loving and devoted Christian and all of the community will miss her. |
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Fri Nov 29, 2013 5:34 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Janet Pickell, wife of Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell, remembered as friend to all
Roberto Acosta | racosta1@mlive.com By Roberto Acosta | racosta1@mlive.com
on November 30, 2013 at 3:54 PM, updated November 30, 2013 at 3:55 PM
FLUSHING, MI – Even as she lay in hospice care after cancer had spread to her brain, Robert Pickell said his wife of nearly 50 years took it upon her shoulders to make other feel at ease.
“She made her disease easier for everybody else,” he said of Janet Pickell, 72, who died Thursday, Nov. 28 at the couple’s Flushing home with their three children around the bedside.
Born in Adrian, Janet graduated from Adrian High School and went on to pursue an elementary education degree at Adrian College while also taking part as a cheerleader for the football team.
Robert said Janet would joke about how they met, telling people “Bob sat on the end of the bench and he was flirting with me when the game was going on.”
Following graduation, the couple moved to the Flint where Janet taught third grade in what has now become the Carman-Ainsworth school district. She left work following the birth of the couple’s first child.
“She was just a wonderful mother. Growing up in Adrian… it’s a small community. Back in the (19)50s it was God, family, and country,” he said. “That’s the way she lived her life. She was a very devout Christian, very involved in the prayer chain day.”
Evangelist Geneva Spears said she and Janet received the same calling to organize the prayer chain event in Flint that began in 2005 and has spread, with the September 2013 event including members from 150 churches in the Flint area gathering to discuss and pray for their hopes for the city.
“The prayer chain is a way of reaching out to people and bringing unity among the churches to work together,” she said, with Janet writing a theme song for the effort. “The purpose of working together is to get all the churches in the city to pray against crime, pray against all the social ills and bring prosperity back to our city.”
Spears called Janet “a great partner” in the event, with Robert noting she would station herself in front of the Genesee County Jail to provide prayers for the inmates, their families and children.
“She felt if the inmates could get God into their lives and turn their lives around, they could be good citizens in the community,” he said, adding Janet also helped in the non-profit group Motherly Intercession which provides services for children with parents in jail.
“People loved her so much. That’s how I can describe her whole being, her whole journey,” said Spears, adding even those who met Janet only once felt like they were her best friend. “People loved her. What a special woman, what a unique woman.”
Her giving, magnetic personality also pushed Janet into some notorious areas of the community, Spears said.
“She wasn’t a fearful person. She didn’t have any fear,” she said. “She would go anywhere, anytime of night. Where we would be shaking in our boots, she did not have that.”
That strength was tested in March 2005, when she was approached by a gunman while working at Famliy Community Credit Union at Beecher Road and Ballenger Highway.
“A guy came in and robbed her and put a gun in her face,” said Robert Pickell. “He went to grab for the money and she pushed him.”
After a short struggle, the gunman ran from the building and she followed but was attacked by an accomplice with pepper spray.
“I ask her ‘Janet, why would you do that?’” recalled Robert. “She said I’m just tired of it.”
“She was a true, true supporter,” said Spears of trying to make a change in the community. “There are a lot of people that are talkers. She was a lady of action. She is going to be tremendously missed not just in the faith-based community, but the community period.”
Robert said “If she believed in something she would go ahead and do it, she wasn’t concerned about social pressures. It was that inner strength through faith that carried Janet through life and illness that landing her in hospice care since July, he said.
“She couldn’t walk, talk, swallow, her arm was paralyzed. She never once complained,” he said. “It was her faith, her strength, she believed. We were even praying for a healing right up until the very end.”
Drawing strength from Janet, Robert said “I could talk to her and confide with her. She understood, she was a pleasure to be around,” and would tell him to redirect any angry feelings into praying for those who drew the ire and could brighten his feelings on the worst of days.
“Right around the second or third week in July, I was really feeling down (about her illness). She said to me I’m at peace, and I want you to be at peace. She said God will take me when he wants me,” he said. “I said Janet, are you concerned about something? She said I’m not concerned about anything. I remember that for sure.”
Janet is preceded in death by her parents and brother, David. She is survived by her husband of 49 years, Robert; daughter, Laura (and son-in-law, Rick Kline) of Novi; sons, Robert of Washington, D.C. and Brian (and daughter-in-law, Malori) of Grand Blanc; two grandchildren, Emily Kline and Reeva Pickell; and three siblings—Sue Hudson, Steve Sentle, and Debbie Budwit, and many nieces and nephews.
Visitation hours will be held from 4 p.m-8 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 1 and noon-8 p.m. Monday, Dec. 2 at Swartz Funeral Home, 1225 W. Hill Rd. A celebration of Janet’s life is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday, December 3, 2013 at Mayfair Bible Church, 5339 W. Pierson Rd. Interment will follow in Sunset Hills Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Motherly Intercession, P.O. Box 311109, Flint, MI 48531. |
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Sat Nov 30, 2013 4:21 pm |
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