Obituary of Janice Peddie

Janice Peddie Born December 24, 1928 in Newark, NJ to parents Charles and Ruth Pensack. Died March 31, 2021 in Newport Beach, CA Survived by her two sons, Jonathan Peddie and Jeffrey Peddie Daughters-in-Law, Sandra Peddie and Gail Peddie Grandchildren: Charlie Peddie, William Peddie, Adam Peddie and Noah Peddie Service held at Home of Peace in Los Angeles on April 6, 2021 Janice grew up in Irvington, NJ and attended Irvington High School with her two brothers. Along the way, she skipped two grades in primary school and graduated high-school early. Attending Montclair State Teachers College, Janice received her teaching credential and taught high-school where she commented the students were the same age as her. She always had a passion for speaking Spanish and spent an extended time in Mexico City in her early 20’s where she honed her language skills. Janice married Wilfred (Bill) Peddie on July 1, 1951 in Newark, NJ. They had a beautiful daughter, Jessica Lynn. The subsequent year, the young family moved across the country to settle in Southern CA, where Jonathan and Jeffrey were born. In 1968, the family moved to the newly incorporated city of Yorba Linda, CA. Tragedy struck in 1971 when Bill Peddie died in an industrial accident. Janice quickly made the transition from home-maker to income-earner. She began teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to native Spanish speakers in the evenings, but quickly realized a teacher’s salary would not be enough to support her three children. In the early 70’s, Janice entered the real-estate field and soon became a real-estate broker. Janice became an accomplished businesswoman. She was a savvy investor and eventually began purchasing rental and commercial income properties. At the same time, Janice became a licensed Medicare supplement insurance agent. She loved the sales process and truly cared about her insurance clients. When asked about the secret to her success, she commented that her clients appreciated her honesty. If she did not feel a policy was right for her clients, she would dissuade them from purchasing it. Her clients’ long term insurance needs were always more important than her sales commissions. From Medicare supplement insurance, Janice branched out into Long-Term Care (LTC) insurance sales. The flexibility of working out of a home office, allowed Janice the freedom to attend to her family’s needs as well as her business responsibilities. Tragedy struck a second time when in 1985, her 29-year-old daughter succumbed to complications from Juvenile Diabetes and an associated kidney transplant from 1980. Through the next 20 years, Janice was comforted and gained immense joy from the marriages of her two sons and subsequent births of her four grand-children. She cherished her family, especially her grand-children. Janice’s father was an orphan who immigrated as a teen on his own to the US in the late 1800’s. Her parents instilled in Janice a very strong work ethic and appreciation of family. This desire to stay connected to family manifested itself in the many vacations she took with her two brothers and their wives. Throughout their lives, the three siblings would make a concerted effort to bring all the relatives together for life-cycle events and vacations. A highlight was the annual Pensack Associates gathering at her vacation home in Steamboat Springs, CO including lots of skiing and large family dinners. The next 10 years were a mix of insurance sales, stock investments as treasurer of her investment club, rental property management, travel, theater and concert series, along with her favorite Monday evening bridge games with her girlfriends. Janice was a worker-bee and never slowed down. She sold her insurance business in 2014 at the ripe old age of 85. However, within a few months Janice suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and lay in a coma in the emergency room for almost three days. The next seven years were a testament to Janice’s indomitable will to recover and pursue her former life. Janice miraculously regained consciousness and began the long and arduous journey to recovery. She was fortunate in that the stroke mostly affected her short-term memory and some cognitive skills. She exhibited almost no physical impairment. Janice now had full-time caregivers and within a year, enrolled in the Coastline Community College Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) program, where they worked to help Janice develop skills to compensate for her cognitive limitations. Then in 2016, Janice was diagnosed with duodenal cancer which would have been terminal, if not treated. She was determined to fight the cancer and commented she had no plans to leave us anytime soon. Janice underwent a very complex Whipple procedure followed by almost four months of recovery. Over the next couple of years, Janice’s health began to decline. She suffered a number of falls, intestinal obstructions, and bouts with the flu virus along with atrial fibrillation. Progressive macular degeneration was particularly devastating as Janice had loved to read and watch TV. She also suffered from aortic stenosis and her daily walks along the beach and local parks were slowly transitioning to short trips around her court. However, catching the COVID-19 virus before her 92nd birthday in 2019 had her family most concerned. Luckily, she received an anti-body infusion and by early January 2021 she was released from the hospital. But it still took her almost three months to begin to gain her strength back. Always resistant to moving into a senior residence, Janice’s family made a final push to get her out of her home of 35 years, so she could enjoy the socialization within the community along with the simpler apartment and added staff to keep an eye on her. But Janice would have nothing to do with it. She loved her home and had developed a nice relationship with some of her caregivers. Janice was convinced that scaling the three flights of stairs in her home was the key to her endurance and she continued making the daily trek up and down, right to the end. Janice passed quietly in her sleep the evening of March 31st. True to her fighting spirit, Janice was not a good patient and did her best to avoid any medical intervention. In later years, she refused to even get a cavity repaired, much less non-invasive heart surgery. She did not have any typical hobbies. She was always most happy when she was working and earning a living. Her advice to all who would listen was to keep working as long as you can, because the wonderful “Golden Years” was a complete misnomer. Janice was an avid philanthropist and donated to a multitude of charities. She was very grateful to be blessed with her financial success and always wanted to give back. Judging from the vast pile of donation solicitation letters she received each week; the charities knew this as well. By far, the charity closest to her heart was UC San Francisco’s kidney transplant group. Dr. Flavio Vincenti had a special relationship with her daughter, who had undergone a kidney transplant. In lieu of flowers, a donation to this group or any charity would be deeply appreciated. There is a link on the upper right side of following page: https://transplantsurgery.ucsf.edu/meet-the-team/nephrology/flavio-vincenti,-md.aspx We are truly going to miss our mother, grandmother and role model for a life well-earned and lived to the fullest. Janice had friends from all walks of life. She was an excellent judge of character and was not impressed by material trappings. She was most impressed by a person’s ethics and how they treated their fellow man. The world is a little emptier today having lost this beautiful spirit from among us. We will always love you…