Janée Dupuis was a wanderer. Drawn to music, art, nature and mountains, Janée wandered her way through the world and into people's hearts.
From Windsor, Ont., she followed her spirit where it led her. She backpacked in Australia and Ireland, taught English in Taiwan, studied in Vancouver and Toronto, led canoe trips in Temagami, Ont., adventured with Katimavik in Northern Ontario and, more recently, travelled to Switzerland for special sarcoma therapies.
Janée's heart was as big as her creative, inquisitive mind. She studied anthropology at the University of Windsor and holistic healing at Windsong School on Vancouver Island. In 2008, she went to Toronto for her master's degree at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, where she was completing her final year and where her battle with cancer began in June, 2009.
In the midst of her treatment, Janée unleashed her creativity, expressing herself through blog-style stories of a warrior princess who was set to conquer the world and the quickly spreading cancers in her body. Through art therapy, Janée revealed her emotions, usually creating brightly painted visions of hope but, on a darker day, allowing a dark black creature to spill onto her canvas.
Janée, often wearing a tuque or flip flops, was as comfortable with paints and pastels as she was with a yoga mat, a snowboard, a paddle or a pint (preferably Guinness). Janée loved her nicknames - Mei Mei, Neenee and Jaige - and creating nicknames for just about everyone she met.
Anyone blessed with a Janée hug could feel her heart radiating from her body. She was a divine mix of smart and beautiful, even if she tended to doubt both. Always modest, Janée played down her skills and talents. Once, when she ventured to Sudbury, she was asked to fill in on a baseball team. She accepted but warned that she'd be terrible. Instead, she hit a triple and line drives and made star catches.
People were drawn to Janée's infectious laugh and her genuine nature. She truly loved the world, her family and her friends, many of whom gathered around her in her final days from as far away as B.C. and Australia. The influence of her parents, Phil and Patti, shone in Janée's caring heart, easy laugh and goodness, as it still shines in her sisters Sarah and Mandi, and her brother PJ.
Everyone Janée touched in her wanderings gained something from knowing her. At her funeral, a small inukshuk was passed from hand to hand symbolizing Janée's warrior spirit and the commitment of those who loved her to live and love better and adventure in the world the way she did.
Michelle K. Brunette is Janée's friend.