ARIZONA — Morse, Janice P., 79, of Phoenix, Ariz., and Wilton, died peacefully in Arizona on Dec. 10, 2014, after a long, valiant struggle to defy medicine. She spent her entire career as a physical therapist and if you knew her, she had plenty of opinions about what was right and wrong about our health care system. It is fitting that she spent the last two years giving her doctors, nurses and the entire health care system a run for its money. After puzzling her doctors, defying all predictions, and stubbornly showing everyone that she was not the norm, she is now free of the body that failed her too soon.
Born in Farmington, she is preceded in death by her mother and father, Grace Olive Adams and Durward Nathaniel Trask. She is survived by her children, Judith Morse Rood, Jennifer Morse, Jay Morse and Joy Morse; her grandchildren, Devon and Brian Rood, Anthony Morse, Chelsea, Travis and Austin Morse and Jake Morse. She is also survived by her stepgrandson, Erick Rood, his wife, Heather, and her first great-grandchild, Jack; and her brother, Robert Trask of Wilton.
Mom was an adventurer whose spirit took her to faraway places. After growing up in a small town in central Maine, she headed off to the big city of Boston to attend Sargent College. In 1966, she and her husband moved their three young children to American Samoa, a small island in the South Pacific. In 1972, the family moved to Tempe, Ariz., where she began leaving her mark on the home care segment of the health care field. She obtained her master’s degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix and formed her own home care business. She worked in many different hospitals and nursing homes, but her favorite place to work was her patient’s homes. She enjoyed a long, fulfilling career until the day she was hospitalized. But her true love was her children and her grandchildren. While working full time, she always found time for them — cooking, baking, answering questions about this pain or that ache or attending their activities. Janice had many “projects” to finish once she retired, but she never retired.
In 2003, she became a snow bird, living and working in Maine in the summer and Arizona in the winter. Throughout her long hospital stay, she always had a picture her home in Maine on the wall, a reminder that she was ever determined to go “home.” And at home, she will now rest.
Tributes and condolences may be shared by visiting www.wilesrc.com.
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