This is my obituary and I am going to tell the story.
I was born in 1945 to Tom and Margaret Odekirk in Santa Barbara, California, the youngest of six children. Our oldest sibling, Janice, died prior to all the rest of our births.
Our father was a baker, and our mother stayed home to care for us all. After more moves than we cared to want we finally settled when I was five to a home in Northern California.
I had the most wonderful childhood. There were five of us neighborhood kids who never saw the sunrise or the sunset without having done a lot fun of things together. We roamed around the woods behind our houses, plugged our ears to the sound of the trains being coupled and uncoupled at the large rail yard down the road, watched the hobo camps that had sprung up in the early 50s without fear or tribulation. Since our parents were clueless to what we were doing they probably had no fear either but that was the 1950s.
In 1963 I married Jack Reagan and we had our daughter Kim in 1964. Jack finished his higher education and then I started my college career. I graduated summa cum laude from California State University, Fresno in 1978 and then from law school in 1982. I practiced bankruptcy, adoptions, and family law until I retired in 2008.
Jack and I divorced sometime between 1977 and 1978 and remain friends.
In 1985 I began my relationship with Jim Walsh whom I married in 2003. During our time together, Jim and I traveled for 10 months to the Far East and the Middle East in the early 1990s and then, for six months, to the Balkan States and Central America where Jim, a college Sociology instructor, had a sabbatical to study Civil War and civil strife in that area. It was interesting to say the least. I’ll hand it to Jim Walsh who helped me see the reasonableness of being on the left side of politics and social issues.
Jim died in 2013 and I moved to Iowa to be near Kim in 2014. Once settled in Burlington I became involved in A Street Cat with No Desire, a trap, neuter, vaccinate, release organization as treasurer and sometimes trapper. I collected two more cats during this time and added them to the two I brought from California. Besides having a wonderful home overlooking the Mississippi River, besides cats I have collected friends, new family, and all that is important to me.
In 2019 I had a recurrence of the breast cancer I had in 2013. Kim and I have been messing with this disease now for five years and it’s been a great journey. We have gone on many trips together, often with other friends and family, often assuming it would be our last when it was not. Kim has been the greatest companion and friend I’ve ever had even counting the two husbands. I’m certainly looking forward to Kim’s growing passion for art and travel. Enjoy, my darling.
To those who have died before me, I honor you. My father, Tom, my mother Margaret, a.k.a. Peggy, who babied me until I left home at 18, I was her favorite, to my brother Tom who, unlike me, was on the right side of things but we could talk and laugh about it and I miss that, to Janice, our oldest sister, to my mother-in-law Virginia Walsh.
I am survived by my daughter Kim and her sweet husband John, brother Jon (Linda), sister Beth, sister Kathie (Fred), nieces and nephews, sister-in-law Peggy (Dennis).
Please, no flowers or plants. Donate to your favorite charity, hopefully on the left side of things.
Janine died on March 7, 2024, at the age of 79 after one last trip to her favorite beach. A celebration of her life will be held at the home she loved on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi starting at 4 p.m. on May 11, 2024.