Memories of Janet Calder

The funeral for my cousin, Janet Calder, was held on March 13, 2023.  I missed a monthly DDJP Board meeting to attend, because I was so fond of Janet.  Janet was an absolutely lovely person--kindly, generous, and very capable.  She never married, but became an institution at BYU.  She was the private secretary to five BYU presidents, including Jeffrey R. Holland and Dallin Oaks, both of whom became apostles.  Janet's five distinguished bosses attended a private party with Janet's family the night before the funeral.  
 

My father deeply admired his older brother, my Uncle Hamilton Calder, who was Janet's father.  Uncle Ham was a banker and the developer of the hillside above BYU.  Uncle Ham and Aunt Myrtle lived in a spacious home in the foothills, with a swimming pool and a soda fountain with 5 gallon tubs of ice cream of different flavors, which seemed the ultimate luxury to me.   Aunt Myrtle was notorious for the huge red bathtub she installed when she and Uncle Ham remodeled their house.   I tried to take a look every time I drove to Provo with Mom and Dad to visit Uncle Ham and Aunt Myrtle.  I also love the story of when Janet and her brother, Jim, were the size they were in this photo.  Their babysitter asked for a copy of the scriptures, when Uncle Ham and Myrtle were gone.  Janet and Jim searched the house, but no scriptures.  They handed the babysitter a copy of "Black Beauty" and said, "Will this do?"

As my parents traveled to Hong Kong and other great shopping cities, they bought lace tablecloths and other items ordered by Uncle Ham and Aunt Myrtle for Janet's wedding trousseau.  Her parents didn't think any of the young men Janet dated were good enough for her, though, and, as I heard the story, Janet dutifully turned her suitors down.  As the years passed, she never found that perfect man.

At the funeral, one speaker told about Jeffrey Holland, when he became president of BYU, expressing to one of the BYU coaches how anxious he felt about keeping the professors and staff at the university happy.  "You don't have to worry about that," the coach said.  "You just have to keep Janet Calder happy and she'll do the rest!".

A group of my Calder cousins attended Janet's funeral.  We lined up, after the service, with the oldest cousin, Suzie Liechty, on the far left and the youngest, me, on the far right.  We planned a cousin's reunion for late April.