Janet McGoff Burrus
Deceased

Deceased 5/23/15 - You can read Janet's's obituary by clicking here.

Updated May 2023 by Janet's daughter Heather Belanger

I’ll pick up where my Mom left off. Her first of four granddaughters, Emily, arrived early in January 2001, and Grace followed in 2003. Rob’s first, Kate, arrived in 2005 and Anna followed in 2007. I was very lucky to have Mom available to travel monthly with me to work in Florida. That was just the beginning of the monumental relationship Mom had with her granddaughters. She was Jammy. She taught them to cherish spontaneity, being a jokester, and nature. We would gather for a few weeks on the Maine coast every summer. The memories of laughter, games, jokes, and family time are endless and irreplaceable. Mom also continued to travel with her sisters. Her Mom passed away in 2002, so the trips with her sisters continued the family bonds that remained her priority.

Mom and Dad continued to enjoy living in rural Vermont, always striving to minimize their footprint and be stewards of the land and home they loved. Mom continued to love cleaning out the forest of the dead to allow new growth to emerge. They installed solar water heating and restored a sugaring shack on the land, spending many long days and nights in the springs sugaring. The maple syrup was always devoured during the summer in Maine.

As her granddaughters grew from babies and toddlers to children on the run, Mom was ready for the challenge and always prepared to show them another adventure. An adventure to Disney World, more trips to Maine, and weekends in Vermont.

When Mom became sick, she fought, stayed strong, relied on her faith in God, and never showed fear. Her granddaughters never saw the struggle, just the love, and joy Jammy had for life. Dad mourned and struggled, but we are fortunate that he found someone and has built a new life as Mom would have wanted. My girls are now in college and Rob’s in high school. It will be 8 years since Mom passed. If there is a full moon, I will always get a message from my girls letting me know Jammy is watching. Jammy lives through all four of them. We see it every day. Recently my mom’s sister, Ann, passed on to my brother some pictures that my mom had been organizing. My Grace and Rob’s Anna were going through them and found handwritten notes from Mom telling stories of her life and memories. She continues to remind us to cherish family, memories, and laughter.

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Bio submitted 2001:

Where is Mr. Blake when you need him the most? While thinking of a creative way to write my history since 1965, I wonder how he would counsel us.  I'll begin by working backwards. Yesterday, my husband and I took advantage a rare Vermont November 'day of grace' , rode our bikes over hill and dale and paid our electric bill. We spent the afternoon putting firewood into dry places, tucking our vegetable garden in for the winter, and taking one last check of our sugarhouse before winter sets in. Life has been good to us here in East Montpelier. We live on a dirt road, high on a hill, with 270 degree views but are only 10 minutes from the capitol building by car, 25 minutes by bike, and 90 minutes by walking. If anyone is looking to trade their place by the sea or in the city for a week-end or week , let's be in touch. We're only 40 minutes from Stowe.

Highlights of the 90's. Our son, Rob, and daughter, Heather, graduated from colleges outside of Vermont. Rob lives with his wife in Hampton NH. He is a United Airlines pilot and also flies refueling tankers for the NH Air Guard. They have two dogs. Heather and her husband live in the heart of Chicago, across from the Merchandise Mart on the 15^th floor of a refurbished industrial building. Her husband is a corporate pilot and Heather works for an interior-decorating firm out of Boca Raton Florida. She works from home and flies to FL twice a month as their CFO. Their first child arrives in February. My husband, Dave, retired from the State of Vermont in human services and has been in engaged in several different careers including merchandising, working in a chocolate factory, stocking grocery shelves and assembly line work. He has recently gone back to school for his Masters in spiritual counseling.

I have worked for the State of Vermont in various capacities too numerous to mention here. Right now I work for the Department of Personnel in the Human Resources Division. I am the Web Handler for the Division and also teach some classes in customer service and time management. . Sometime in the next 2-4 years I hope to retire and do some fun things like ride our bicycles cross-country, travel a whole lot and maybe pick up a few temp jobs along the way. Too bad we baby boomers are all so tied to jobs just for the health insurance. I love working but want to work only when it's rainy. In 1991, I graduated from Johnson State College with a Bachelors degree in Education. I thought I wanted to be a classroom teacher but soon figured out that my free time was dedicated to planning, correcting and covering our dining room table with paperwork. I didn't last too long. One low point of the nineties was the death of my father. He died the day after Christmas in 1995 on the ski slopes of Sunapee NH. What a way to go! My five sisters and I miss him terribly. Our mom lives in an assisted living facility in Concord NH. She has moderate dementia and is in a good place. My sister, Ann, lives 3 minutes from her facility.

Highlights of the 80's. In 1981 we moved into our old cape farmhouse here in East Montpelier and worked hard to update and still retain most of its charm. Half our land is open and half is wooded. My favorite part of living here is working in the woods and cutting out many kms of ski trail. Ski trails are like web sites: maintenance is harder than the design. During this decade, our children attended high school and began their college careers. Our daughter's teen-aged years kept us on an emotional roller coaster and her risky behaviors took its toll on us but we managed to survive and emerged stronger. Many of our family vacations were bicycling trips to Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and British Columbia. 

The 70's were dedicated to child rearing. In 1973 we moved to Vermont from Ohio. Dave is a native Ohioan. I missed the four seasons and was homesick for New England. Jobs in human services/public sector were easy to come by and it was a seamless transition for us. 

The 60's were a blur. After graduating from SHS, I went to Westbrook College and graduated with an Associates in Dental Hygiene. In the summer of 1967, I took a quick vacation in Sarasota Florida to visit my grandmother and it was there that I met Dave. We were both sunning on beautiful Crescent Beach on Siesta Key. The rest is history. I see many classmates living in that wonderful part of Florida.