Sometimes in life, we come full circle without realizing it. There’s a relish of life in even its smallest details, an understanding of it in all its profundity and then a closing of the circle.
So it was with our beloved colleague Jane K. Dove, who died suddenly last Thursday, March 8, at her northern Westchester home.
In our last conversation, she told me she had come through the intense grief over the loss of her adored husband, Sylvan, and was reveling in the creature comforts of her home and the small improvements she was making to it, along with continuing to savor various close relationships.
“I’m a practical person,” she said. “I just get on with it.”
Indeed, even when Sylvan died, she assured me she would not miss a deadline. The work would be good for her, she said.
In a world of entitlement, Jane’s work ethic stood out, as did her steadiness, her reliability and her consistency in story after excellent story, beginning eight years ago (when Dee DelBello published the first issue of the new WAG) with the House of the Month feature (WAG Way) and animal stories right up to her recent medical reporting, which tapped into her background working for New York Medical College.
Jane polished that consistency with a plainspoken wit and couched it in an empathy for others.
“Now they’re together,” a colleague said of her and her husband, eyes brimming.
Yes, now they are together again – in what I like to think is a better place. – Georgette Gouveia
