Jane Smith is a wonderful mentor and a lady who made a handprint on my heart.When we first moved to San Angelo, back in 1959, my parents built a house on the corner of A&M street and Yale Avenue. Just up the block, several houses from us, on Yale Ave. a family named Smith moved in. We became lifelong friends. My dad was a medical doctor and found common ground with Dr. Smith, a phychologist. Jane and my mom, Dixie, were instant friends and had much in common as doctor's wives and mothers of small children. Jane was a degreed teacher and my mom a licensed dietician. Both our families attended First Baptist Church of San Angelo at that time.
I have so many childhood, teenage, and then adult memories of Jane. My mother and she would babysit for each other and one weekend my parents and brothers went to Big Bend without me! I stayed with the Smiths and I remember Jane putting me to bed early, as I am sure my mother instructed her to, but when I snuck out and crept in to see what the others were still up doing, she caught me and returned me to bed with a swat to my behind! I never let her forget that she "spanked" me! We joke about that still.
Jane taught me how to pack and stop a bloody nose like a pro! The neighborhood was predominantly boys so there were frequent bloody noses and Ms. Jane always knew how to remedy them quickly and with no squeamishness at all. She knew just how to mix a poultice of baking soda and water to soothe ant stings on my little girl legs and how to adjust roller skates out on her front driveway. She taught me how to make yummy ooey, gooey, smores! Jane's house was the place to be for the kids on that block. Always a cardboard box house to play in or a welcoming back yard to imagine in and dream up plays to perform for her when we were ready for an audience! She would clap and cheer for our drama team and encourage us to do more!
My favorite memory of being a child on Jane Smith's block was that every year, near Christmas, she wuld rent a reel to reel movie called "The Littlest Angel" from the Tom Green County Library. She'd have a big movie screen and projector set up in her living room and invite all the neighborhood over. We'd sit and watch this sweet movie and then after the viewing Jane would bring out a birthday cake with candles on it and have us all sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus! She did this every year when we were kids. I still like to make a birthday cake for Jesus and put the little plastic baby Jesus in his manger bed, borrowed from our Nativity, on top of the cake and remember how Ms. Jane started this tradition!
As a teenager and then as an adult, my birthday was always remembered by Jane in a thoughtful way. She always made me a card and sometimes wrote me a special poem! As an adult I received things from her on my birthday like a personalized lovely picture frame with gold writing on it and a special photo inside.
Jane and my mom, Dixie, had a very special friendship that endured for over half a century! A few weeks before my mom lost her battle with Leukemia, she had me take her over to visit Jane. That October of 2008, we had such a nice time talking, looking at pictures, and laughing! We had to repeat some of our stories over again when Jane would ask an occasional question of us that she had already asked us a few minutes before. You see, Jane now has Alzheimer's disease but you wouldn't have known it, not right away, that day, if you didn't know she had received this life changing diagnosis.
Jane has helped so many children and students over the years with her passion and special training to work with Dyslexia and help students with reading difficulties. She has imprinted the hearts of numerous students in the Concho Valley with her positive spirit and her gentle and joyful teacher's heart. Jane has an infectious laugh and a truly delightful sense of humor.
Alzheimer's disease is slowly dimming this amazing lady's memories and fading them away but her impact and touch on the lives of others like myself and so many students will never fade.
Dr. Steven Smith, Margaret Jane Smith Wimpee, Dr. Paul Smith, and Mrs. Jane Smith.These photos are from 1975, according to my dad's handwriting in a photo album I found recently.
Steven was with me when I was 5 and we were climbing a tree on Yale Ave. I fell and broke my right arm! I wonder if I helped motivate him to become a doctor? He is a bit younger than me but as a toeheadded little guy on the block he did his best to keep up with all the big kids running around!
October 2008 when Mom and I went to visit with Jane. What a wonderful visit we had!
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