Ken Rose's reflections of Janice Unlangca's service. Love, Grace & Peace, Ellen Howie Begin forwarded message:
From: "Dorcas Rose" <icatroy@verizon.net> Date: September 2, 2013 2:57:23 PM EDT To: "Nelson Stover" <StoverN@BellSouth.net>, "Terry Bergdall" <bergdall@gmail.com>, "John Cock" <jpc2025@triad.rr.com>, "Norm & Judy Lindblad" <nj.lindblad@gmail.com>, "Ellen Howie" <rhowie3@verizon.net> Subject: Janice Ulangca's Memorial Service
Reflections on Janice Ulangca’s Memorial Service
Janice Ulangca’s memorial service was held at the First United Methodist Church in Endicott, New York on August 14, 2013. That morning Dorcas and I drove to the Howie’s with our daughter Alice and Bob Griffin soon arrived from Massachusetts. We took two cars to Endicott. Dick drove the Howie’s car with Ellen and Dorcas; Alice followed in ours with me and Bob, who checked in with Muriel. The memorial service was hosted by Janice’s sister Jeanine and her family. Jeanine looks enough like Janice to be mistaken for her at first glance. The Endicott church has a large facility with some conference offices and runs a Safety Net program. Part of that program involves meals at the church and participants in the program helped prepare the meal following the memorial service. The memorial service was led by Rev. Susan Davis who had just retired as the pastor. Janice had been active in the Broome County Council of Churches for many years, which was reflected in the five other pastors (all men) who participated in the service in addition to the choir. There is a period in the service for words of remembrance and hope. This provided an opportunity for people to witness to the blessing that Janice’s life had been for them. This was a remarkable outpouring of appreciation for the presence Janice had been in the many lives she touched. Here are some highlights as I remember them. Rev. Sue Davis talked about how close Janice had been as a friend, supporter, and guide in her ministry. She mentioned Janice eating meals and talking with the people served by the Safety Net program. Janice’s family remembered her growing up as a preacher’s kid. When she was in primary school, she asked to stay home from church one Sunday. It turned out that she spent her time at home calling up members of the congregation to ask why they weren’t in church. (Her parents only learned about this when her father retired from the church.) At Ellen’s request I read from Judy Lindblad’s eulogy for Janice. I left out the long list of Janice’s ICA activities, but got a laugh from the congregation when I mentioned her being a founding member of the Old as Hell Angels. A member of the choir, who was the husband of the choir director, thought he would get more time with his wife when Janice became involved in the music program at the church. Janice mentioned that one piece of music was not suitable for the choir because it required a deep voice. He asked ‘What about me?’, became involved, and remembered Janice’s enthusiastic ‘Yes!’ when he hit the low tones. A neighbor recalled many conversations with Janice when she was ferrying her back and forth from chemotherapy. Janice was beginning to feel more tired, but no less encouraging. Copies of Janice’s obituary and the memorial service are attached.
Ken Rose

