jan abbott: a woman ahead of her time
by joan medlicott

When you are 88 years old, have been married to a Navy man, traveled, and lived extensively in the Far East, some folks might think you'd be content to retire, sit on the porch, enjoy the mountains, and watch the world go by. Not Jan Abbott.

Her gait may have slowed, her hair thinned a bit, but her intelligent blue eyes look out at this changing world and events with interest and optimism.

These qualities were obvious when she was a young woman.

Born in 1915 and raised in a small town Nebraska, Jan, a young woman with a mind of her own, became a dental assistant. One would have expected her to marry the hometown boy to whom she was engaged, settle down, and have babies. By a freak of chance (or was it fate?) Jan slipped and fell on the sidewalk outside her home. She was helped to her feet by a young Navy man home on leave to see a girl and visit his grandmother. Jan stood at a crossroad and chose the road less traveled. Her choice stunned her family. One week later Jan and the young man were married.

The year was 1937. Her husband was immediately shipped to the Far East. War raged between Japan and China. Determined to follow him and to see the world, Jan borrowed money for her passage to Hong Kong. Two things about that long sea voyage are blazoned in her memory: their Captain requested that everyone scan sky and sea for Amelia Earhart’s plane or its wreckage, and the Japanese attacked Shanghai in China.

What came next is the stuff adventure films are made of: two months in Hong Kong, months in Canton, back to Hong Kong, then Canton, where, during the first air raid in which the Japanese dropped 500 pound bombs on Canton, she gave birth to a stillborn son. Over the next year, Jan was evacuated and re-evacuated as the Japanese relentlessly moved westward. In Manila in the Philippines, after losing a second baby boy, Jan was permanently evacuated home to the U.S.

Then came a less stressful time during which Jan’s husband attended radio school in Washington D.C. and Jan worked at a Navy yard at the Sight Shop making ‘sights’ for guns and sights used in bombing.

During those times when her husband was overseas, Jan lived in Nebraska with her family, until, that is, her husband’s ship returned to a West Coast port for supplies. Jan managed to meet that ship each time, and in 1943 she gave birth to a healthy son and settled down to wait out the remainder of the war.

Japan and the two-year post-war assignment was difficult in a land that had so recently been the enemy. And yet Japan was beautiful, the people calm and dignified. Jan found herself relaxing and enjoying it. Amazingly, after almost nine years, she became pregnant, and her daughter was born in America. Jan’s life centered around her small family. And yet, being the creative, intrepid, capable woman she is, that was not enough. Jan became a Girl Scout leader and then an instructor for new Girl Scout leaders.

Her children grew up. Illness struck—her husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer, her son with brain cancer. She nursed them both and lost them both. After a period of deep grieving, Jan looked about and realized that she was alone and free. The sand in her shoes rubbed against her soles. At seventy-five years old, she signed up for a stint in China teaching teachers English. But at seventy-five, the heat and cold, the food, and attendant weight loss was more than she had bargained for. Jan came home and settled down in California, until her daughter moved to North Carolina and invited Jan to join her. With all the tenacity and spunk she still possessed, Jan did just that.

Now, on summer weekends you can find Jan at the Farmer’s Market on the campus of Mars Hill College in Mars Hill. Jan has created innovative hot dish carriers that once you own you would never want to be without. She makes pot holders and placemats, as well as aprons that will remind you of the ‘good old days'. At two recent books fairs sponsored by the Friends of The Weaverville Library, Jan kept the attendance record.

With her daughter working all day, Jan, though she quilts, is a voracious reader and an accomplished seamstress, is sometimes lonely and is game for an afternoon at the movies or lunch. I can attest that it is a pleasure to be in her company.

Joan Medlicott is the author of The Ladies of Covington Send Their Love, the first of a series of six novels [read more on page xx]Originally from St. Thomas, she now lives in Barnardsville [ joanmedlicott.com]