A Fond Farewell
This issue of our newsletter is in memoriam of our founder, mentor, and dear friend Janice Curtis. We will always miss her steady advice, uplifting suggestions, and her holding of hope for people and peer efforts even when other people gave up. We wish her family comfort.
Janice was a primary founder of peer support services in Western Colorado. She spent many years driving hundreds of miles each week to bring peer support training to far flung towns in several counties. She talked with police chiefs, legislators, school leadership, and hospital boards to further peer support services. Janice taught Western Colorado peers how to advocate for themselves and others at the city, county, state, and national levels and coached others in the art. She learned how to advocate for other peers from within the walls of institutions and she taught others to do the same.
Janice was a determined defender of disability rights. People who volunteered in peer support at Mind Springs (formerly Colorado West RMH) will likely remember her advocacy for peers to be in control of their own stories and their own treatment. She brought training and led groups from peer-centered efforts such as Open Dialogue Finland, Living A Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions, the Hearing Vocies Network, Wildflower Alliance (formerly WMRLC), Georgia Peers, Wellness Recovery Action Plan, and especially Intentional Peer Support.
A personal note from a past Postvention Alliance president:
Janice taught me that one person can be the holder of hope for another when the first person is unable to have hope at that time. I was in a depression so deep that I had attempted suicide twice. I was unable to sleep. Washing and eating were extremely arduous. I had no hope. One day, recognizing that I was suffering to an incredible degree, Janice told me that when a person has no hope, another person can hold it for them until they can get it back. She asked me if I would like her to hold my hope for me. It was a truly kind offering. It helped me in a big way. I felt seen; as if the suffering I was in had been recognized and acknowledged by someone who had a possible inroad to a future that would have less suffering. It was a glimmer in the dark. It was a priceless gift. Many years later, after I recovered from that disabling depression, my beloved niece was in a bad place emotionally. She was depressed and everything in her life was unhealthy. She was scared and hopeless. Her mother had died a few years before, and I not only loved her, but had promised her mother that I would look out for her. I asked her the question Janice had taught me: Would she like for me to hold her hope for her for a while? She broke down crying and said that yes, that would be welcome and wonderful. I passed the gift from Janice forward. I was able to offer something to my scared and suffering niece. I was enormously grateful to have learned this.
Sandra Eisenberg
Affirmations
Western Colorado is now well into the third generation of people who benefit from Janice’s historic work, though few are aware of her sacrifices on their behalf.
For those of us who benefited from her consistent affirmative advice, here’s a familiar favorite submitted by a friend.
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