Siblings Remember Janice Marron as Avid Cyclist, Loving Person

Janice Marron walked her dog, Snickers, four-and-a-half miles every day in the summer. Snickers isn’t a Siberian Huskey or a Golden Retriever, but a Yorkshire Terrier.

“I asked her, ‘What if he got thirsty?’” her sister, Pamela Mason, said. “She said she’d stop by a mini-mart to get a bottle of water for him.”

Marron was one of six children in her family (three boys and three girls) raised by a single mother. She was the middle sister.

She also was the mother to her son Michael and grandmother to her two grandsons, Caiden and Charles. Another grandchild is on the way.

Marron's siblings said she liked to ride her bike, something that drew her and Mason closer. Mason was a jogger who couldn’t run anymore because of knee problems. She had tried swimming and was thinking about starting cycling.

“She sent me a couple little things to put on my bicycle to encourage me,” Mason said.

“She said you’re going to need to put a cell phone in there and a dollar or two for emergencies. She showed me how to outfit my bike better so I would be more comfortable. We also shared private, personal innuendos of riding a bike. We were very close.”

Cycling also brought Marron closer to one of her nephews – the son of her sister, Barb Karel.

“She would take my son and they would go on bike rides together,” Karel said. “They had a bike ride planned to ride from Elmhurt to Elgin this summer.”

Her siblings said they all became closer with age, especially in the past few years.

She and Karel would talk on the phone every day or sometimes twice a day. “She’d call to make sure I got home okay,” Karel said. “She did little things like that all the time. If I felt discouraged, she was awesome at trying to build you back up. She was very good at encouragement and putting you a step forward instead of a step back.” 

If you needed something and Janice Marron had it, she would give it to you, her brother Scott Karel said.

She was the one who made the holidays, he said. “She made the day,” Karel said. “She was always so happy to be around. She was always laughing.”

Barb Karel said she loved generously. “She made sure Christmas presents were there for (family members) who would not have had them otherwise,” she said.

Janice was also very devoted to her son, Michael, and to her two grandchildren, Caiden and Charles, Karel said. She was very tender-hearted with her mother, who has since moved into a nursing home, Mason said.

Mason said she was grateful for the last time she saw her sister -- President’s Day Weekend, about a week before Marron's death.

Mason stopped into Walgreens to pick up some medication and decided to pick up a bouquet of flowers and a balloon for Marron’s birthday.  She said it had been a long time since they exchanged gifts for one of their birthdays.

“She was so touched and it made her so happy,” Mason said.

“That was what Janice would do for other people. She’s was so generous and giving for others. She was not really expecting much in return. She was more interested in just being generous toward others. We told each other we loved it other. It was a moment given by God.”