A memorial service was held in St Mary’s church last Saturday to remember and give thanks for the life of Janet Waddams, who died three years ago in 2020. Family and friends, many of them church-goers of several different traditions, came together in a moving celebration of words and music.
Janet’s nephew, Simon Lawford, opened on the organ with a JS Bach setting of a Martin Luther hymn and this was followed by her niece, Hatty Philips, giving a beautiful rendition of the well-known hymn: “God be in my head and in my understanding”.
Other family members gave of their memories in tributes and a reading from St John’s Gospel expressed well Janet’s own faith. The hymns were familiar ones and allowed of some sturdy singing, with prayers led by Rev Paul White and Canon Richard Orchard.
As so often, we learnt only now of the many accomplishments of the person no longer with us. Janet had worked at the BBC Third Programme music department and was herself a skilled musician, teaching piano and violin. She sang in the church choir for many years. It was, though, her later life’s work of caring for which she was most widely known and loved by all who knew her.
In response to the Chernobyl nuclear accident of 1986, she initiated the Chernobyl Children in Rye project. This provided an annual respite visit for young people from Belarus affected by the disaster, to come to Rye and stay with local people who had volunteered their hospitality.
Then in 2015, in response to the civil war in Syria, she led the local support for the ongoing Samara Appeal A real community effort resulted in regular dispatches in banana boxes of clothing and blankets, the latter home-made by the ladies knitting group in St Mary’s church.
This practical work was inspired by Janet’s firm religious faith. She would have considered as equally practical her convening a weekly vigil in silent prayer for peace in the Middle East. This inter-denominational gathering was held for a number of years until Janet’s declining health prevented her attendance.
One of the tributes at the thanksgiving service described Janet as we will remember her: “A lovely, gentle, godly, person”. Her natural shyness did not prevent her holding and voicing firm views when she thought necessary. She lived through her later frailty with humour, joy and courage, and so she touched our lives.
Image Credits: David Frost , Kenneth Bird .