IN MEMORY OF JANET SMITH
The Midland Counties Airedale Terrier Club was hugely saddened to learn of the death of club member and former committee member Janet Smith on 1st January 2013. Janet had a long term heart problem and was in fact awaiting a transplant when she passed away – but unfortunately a suitable heart was never found.
A lot of members will probably remember Janet best as ‘the lady with the prizes’, as for many years she did a fantastic job in providing wonderful prizes and rosettes at our fun days, so that everyone went home with a lovely souvenir of their day and their Airedale had some goodies and a rosette to display!
Janet was introduced to Airedales via her father who was a policeman, whose colleague had an Airedale as his police dog; she remained a lover of the breed throughout her life, owning two Airedales - firstly Gemma and then latterly Nell, together with her ‘honorary Airedale’, miniature schnauzer Lucy. Janet’s Airedales always had the best costumes at our annual fancy dress competition – she used to put the rest of us to shame with her amazing creations, I’m sure she must have spent hours making them!
On a personal note, it is thanks to Janet that I am now a committee member, she encouraged me to join and I am very grateful to her for that. Janet herself stood down from the committee a few years ago due to ill health, but she remained a member and a very loyal supporter of the club. I took over from her in organising the prizes for our fun days, and it was only then that I realised how much hard work was involved and what an amazing job she had done over all those years! She was an incredibly kind and generous person, always arriving at our fun days with a box of Airedale goodies that she had miraculously ‘found’ (although I’m convinced she bought them!) for raffle prizes or the club stall. She never liked to be the centre of attention and if you ever tried to thank her for something, she would turn it round and thank you instead! When the committee presented her with a lovely cut glass bowl at our 2010 fun day in recognition of all her hard work for the club, the only way I could get her out into the centre of the ring for the presentation was to ask her to judge the mock show. I know she was genuinely touched and thrilled with her gift, but in typical Janet fashion she scolded me afterwards for tricking her!
Everyone loved Janet, she had a wonderfully mischievous sense of humour and was always ready for a laugh and a joke. Her passing has robbed us of a true friend and I know we will all miss her enormously. To end I would just like to say to Janet on behalf of the Midland Counties Airedale Terrier Club - for everything you did and for your friendship (and as you used to say) - thanks mate x.
Odette Stevens
Janet with her 'surprise gift' from the committee at our June 2010 fun day Janet with her friend Annie Curran at the club's 2007 Centenary Celebrations