Jan Wagner Memorial Community Gardens

When William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, made his first visit to the United States, thousands of Salvation Army officers from across the country assembled to hear him speak. He was given a rather lengthy and glowing introduction by the head of the Salvation Army in the United States. A hush fell over the packed auditorium as General Booth stepped to the podium. He spoke only a single word, “others,” then returned to his seat.

Jan Wagner's life was the embodiment of General Booth's very succinct sermon. She was a woman of great compassion for those who were hurting and of great passion for lost souls. Even when she had very little she would give it to help someone in need and trust God for her own welfare. She frequently prayed for and with strangers, and it didn't take any urging to get her to tell you about her savior. As an example, when her cancer was first diagnosed, one of the nurses who cared for her only one day was pregnant with her first child. With the nurse's permission, Jan prayed for her and her baby, then made sure she got the nurse's name so she could make a card and send it to her after we got home.

Jan was never one to put on airs. She was who she was and life was lived as it presented itself. When she first met my dad she knew she needed to put some dinner on the table, but wasn't sure what. She finally decided to make a home made vegetable soup, her famous home made biscuits, and put out a jar of apple jelly she and her friend Edith had made. This was the beginning of a beautiful relationship of full father and daughter magnitude, because it happens that this was one of Dad's favorite meals. I still remember sitting at the table visiting after we had eaten, and Dad would grab a biscuit, put butter and jelly on it, say, “I should quit this,” and eat it. This kept happening every few minutes until the biscuits were gone. About ten years later as Dad lay dying of cancer, this God ordained father – daughter relationship allowed her to lead Dad to the Lord, providing me the assurance that I would see them both in Heaven.

Jan was capable of a level of love and compassion I would never have imagined existed. On the day of the Uvalde school shooting I found her in our bedroom, Bible open on her lap, silently holding the families of each of the victims up in prayer and asking for God to comfort and sustain them. I have seen her, while waiting to see a doctor herself, comfort and pray for people of all ages who were worried about their own health or that of a loved one.

Going through life with a sense of humor is a common trait in my family, and one of my cousins said that Jan was born a Wagner, she just had to wait for the name. There is photographic evidence from our 2014 family reunion, where Jan spent some time ducking cameras before finally being somewhat surreptitiously photographed. To this day I believe this was a game Jan had decided to play with my cousins, and once they got her picture and she knew it the game was over and she would have posed, possibly even in ways worthy of our aunts, for as many pictures as they wanted.

Her sense of humor was there even when not all of her faculties were. In the Hutchinson hospital one day she complained of being hot. The nurse tried to turn on the built in fan, but it wasn't working so he asked one of the aides to try to find a portable fan. Several times she woke up just long enough to again complain of being hot, and each time I told her Jason was trying to find her a fan. For thirty years my pet name for her had been "The Hot Chick" after a character in Johnny Hart's BC comic strip. About the tenth or so time she complained of being hot I said, “Of course you're hot, you're The Hot Chick.” I could see the wheels turning and after a moment she said, “Oh, okay,” and I never heard another thing about her being hot.

If anyone were to see me as I write this they might think I was manic depressive as I alternate between laughing at thirty years of happy and even comical memories and crying from the loneliness of knowing that the next time I see my Jan I will be receiving my Heavenly reward. I can only hang onto the knowledge that what God does is always best, the comfort that my Jan is no longer sick or in pain, the belief that Jan's homegoing will result in a testimony, and those lovely, lovely memories of a woman like no other.

Our adult children and I agree that these gardens, meant to help meet the nutritional, psychological, and spiritual needs of the people of this place that is far from where she was born but became Jan's beloved home, is exactly the way she would want to be remembered. With your financial help, prayer support, and willingnes to follow Jan's example of giving of your time and talent, we hope to give this facility to Edwards County, with love.

Website © 2022 Jan Wagner Memorial Community Gardens, Inc.