Former LCC professor honors late wife

As Bill Blanchard wrote his new book about his late spouse’s life, “Jan’s Journey: A Portrait to Last a Hundred Years,” he was often asked if it was about her battle with multiple sclerosis.

“It was not intended to be about Jan’s illness. It’s about her life as an outstanding teacher, mother and wife and a memorable person,”  he said.

Even as you read the prologue, you know you’re in for one hell of an emotional roller coaster. Blanchard recalls one night when Jan was well into her illness. As they were lying in bed together, he realized how little he knew about her life before they met as teenagers at Everett High School.

“As we snuggle as spoons, I think back to the earliest stories Jan told me and decide to write them down,” he writes. “The next morning, when I try to outline the events in Jan’s life, I realize how little I know. I will talk with her sister, Debbie; her brother, David; her father and her friends. I begin the research.”

Blanchard will hold two public events to promote the book: one Sept. 18 at the Grand Ledge Area District Library and another Sept. 19 at the Okemos Library. Both events are free, and the book will be available for purchase.

Blanchard began recording conversations, learning more about Jan’s life growing up in Lansing. He was perfectly prepared to do this — after he graduated from Everett and Michigan State University, he went on to attend the prestigious cinema studies program at the University of Southern California in 1967, the same year he and Jan married.

After working on feature films in California and Alaska, Blanchard and Jan returned to Michigan. He began a 30-year career teaching film production at Lansing Community College, while she began her teaching career in the Lansing School District.

Blanchard said it was a few years later, in 1970, that Jan was diagnosed with MS.

The book reads like a movie script, and with Blanchard’s formal training, that makes perfect sense. He acknowledges the style, which he has adapted with great dexterity into book form.

“It’s like a documentary without moving pictures,” he said. “It wasn’t my intention to write a book, but I decided to write it all down for our son, Tony, who I realized didn’t know about (Jan) before she got sick.”

Blanchard said his technique was to interview Jan’s friends and family using a small cassette recorder. He would then transcribe it.

“She would sit with me as I typed it into an early personal computer, and she helped create a timeline. She enjoyed listening to the tapes,” he said.

As you read the book, you realize the process was as important to Blanchard as it was to Jan. The taping and replaying brought them closer together as the disease began to take its inevitable toll.

Blanchard began the recording process in 1990, six years before Jan’s death. At some point, with the encouragement of her friends, he decided to compile the information into a book, which would include diarylike entries about Jan’s illness and its progression.

“I thought it might be a guide to help someone else who is dealing with MS or another debilitating disease,” he said.

To that end, the book is blunt and to the point. It doesn’t blur out the clinical nature of the disease. Blanchard is also forthright and often angry about a medical system that, at the time, was often clueless and lacked care.

When asked about an overarching theme, Blanchard thought for a moment and said, “I want it to be about how important teachers are, and how they help kids grow into adults. That would be Jan’s legacy.”

Another legacy could be not letting a disease such as MS define who you are. During her illness, Blanchard and Jan traveled quite extensively, learning to navigate the world with Jan’s mobility problems.

The two of them worked together on a travel video about navigating Mackinac Island in a wheelchair, for which they won an award.

In the book’s epilogue, Blanchard writes, “We all want to be remembered. Jan would want to be remembered as a teacher … Jan’s life is the best story I know.”

The sections of the book on Jan’s teaching experiences and how she integrated her love of nature into her classroom are nothing short of inspirational.

“The hardest thing about writing the book was the ending — and to be done before I would know the ending,” Blanchard said.