Janice Westemeier Freese by Charlotte Solarz
Submitted May 2023
*NOTE: This article has been slightly revised, using new information submitted by Charlotte Solarz in July, 2023. Charlotte has deeply researched the history of Jan’s family. Documents recording her research are on file with the Iowa Baha’i History Project and are available upon request.
Janice Freese was transported to the Abha Realm in 2016. But she belongs to memory as an inheritance to the Baha’i Community of Dubuque, Iowa. Janice’s grave is in Cascade, near Dubuque.
As soon as my husband and I introduced ourselves to her, soon after her move to Dubuque, we knew she was a special woman. She was eager for friendship and full of stories that centered around her faith. Janice’s example of steadfastness brings mindfulness to our purpose toward building a world secure in safety under the Currents of the divine Will that is steering the Arc of the Covenant.
I heard many fascinating stories from Jan. I hope Danny Freese, her son, or Neisha, her daughter will read this rendition and add their thoughts. For now, let me humbly try to bring her story to light for the mystery and miracle it reveals about forces (we might say “angels”) in our lives that provide guidance to lead souls on their way to the holiest of thresholds (Baha), with bounties of attentive assistance throughout the process.
Jan’s early life tales were both heart-stopping and promising of miracles. She was born into the Westemeier farming family as the seventh of nine siblings. Disaster struck the family when Jan was six years of age. Jan, with her mother, Carmelita, and four siblings (twins Joey and Gerald, Grace-Ann, eight years of age, and Jimmy, nine months) were home in the kitchen at supper time when an explosion from the kitchen stove quickly engulfed those gathered there. Jan could not remember particulars, but according to records, it happened that Carmelita threw kerosene over burning coals on the stove to more quickly warm the food or the kitchen. Almost immediately the fire became too intense to put out. Panic overwhelmed Carmelita. She ran screaming for help, not registering that her clothes were on fire (“as a pyre,” according to the newspaper report). She reached their nearest neighbors, who phoned the fire department and did their best to help the charred woman before them. Someone wrapped her carefully in a blanket and drove her to the nearest hospital, where she died the next day. Meanwhile at the Westemeier home, this fire now lit the skies. Marcellus, Jan’s father, was doing chores in the barn. He became alerted to the fire and immediately rushed to the house to do what he could. He brought out Jan and Joey, Gerald and Grace Ann, all seriously burned. All were taken to a Maquoketa, Iowa hospital, where Grace later died.
Jan suffered burns that required skin grafting. Her eyes were damaged; she was not expected to be able to see. In a hospital ward, little Janice was restricted to long hours in a crib with high safety bars. Bandages were wrapped around her head and eyes. Her two brothers were also hospitalized with burns and were taken from the Maquoketa hospital to the Monticello hospital, which was nearer to their grandmother on their dad’s side. This was Jan’s life for a period of time she could not calculate. Remembering it as an adult, she defined it as “very long.” She referred to this part of her healing progress as happening at the University of Iowa, but newspaper reports do not place her in Iowa City, only at the hospital in Maquoketa and Monticello. It’s not surprising that the memory of a traumatized child may be vague or inaccurate. But she had to have been longing for the familiar succor of family.
Her father was still alive, though fighting for his life and removed to the Iowa City University Hospital. Maybe this information influenced where she thought herself to be. Jan often referred to this traumatic life event.
Jan’s stories from the rescue forward came to be about two visitors, who were vision-like shadow figures. I did not ask whether their presence was real or was intuitive, but she detailed the visits which were comforting to her, providing her with sweet assurances and affectionate kindness. She, in a darkened room with covered eyes, could not see them, only hear. But she never forgot them. One of the visitors was, by her telling, Ábdu’l-Baha. To grasp this the writer has to move ahead to Jan’s adult years as a deepened Baha’í with an understanding of the Faith’s Central Figures. She learned of His Position as the Center of the Covenant, stories she learned and absorbed of Him as the human example of a Perfect Bahá’í. She learned of His life of total servitude on behalf of His Most Blessed Father, Bahaú’llah. Abdu’l-Baha was a miracle of perfect awareness of each human need. Stories of Him are about his compassion and of that comfort and insight into each soul he met! In deepening on the Central Figures, Jan believed one who visited her to have been Ábdu’l-Baha.
The other visitor to Jan’s cribside a stranger, a woman, from Chicago, as she remembered, though with some uncertainty, but she was a kind woman who came regularly to sit with her. She was the light and warmth of her life during those lonely childhood days, so absent of any familiar consolation. Her visitor had books from which she read stories to her. Then she started telling Jan about a special treasure, that when little Janice got better, if she never forgot to look but always remembered to keep looking, then she would find this wonderful treasure. This was a promise. The treasure had special letters of the alphabet she had already learned. They were B and H and A. She should never forget those letters. This treasure would be her helper, a good helper, to be with her for all her days! The Treasure would involve these letters: B and H, or B and H and A. Little Jan promised that she would remember and search for that treasure.
After facial skin grafting began to heal all was done that was possible for her. Time was the best medicine for her to gain strength and thrive. So those involved assessed her to be well enough for release and she became one of many foundlings at the St. Mary’s Orphanage for Dependent Children in Dubuque.
Over time the dimness in her sight became sharp again; her sight was restored. At about that time she was taken into a home as a foster child by a nice farm family. She lived under their guardianship for several years until she came of age. Then the State gave Jan subsidized support for nurse’s aide training, but she did not complete her credentials. I think her attention just drifted, She liked the doing part. Always, Jan was the doer, a hard worker. She landed her first job by her own chutzpah. She walked into Mercy Hospital Human Resources Department and by her demeanor won a position as an aide to the nurses in Dubuque. Jan began to earn her own money, enough for her needs, without the challenges of extended formal training. Her life work then was this vocation. She was effective to the point where patients asked for her throughout her service years as an aide. While caring for her residents she stayed often when their sorrows or fears overwhelmed them, offering the personal touch. With the dying, especially those who had no one come to visit them and cheer them up, she was their daughter in kind. And they loved her. This work was her constant of service to her last! But I get ahead of her story now.
So back to when, at around her 26th birthday, after proving her steadiness and work reliability, she met a Navy man who was known by the family as an acceptable, marriageable guy. This was George Freese. Their courtship was rushed into two weeks because he was ordered to the Navy Base on Guam. So very soon after marriage, off to Guam went the newlyweds, Mr. George and Mrs. Jan Freese.
They lived in Base housing. The Freeze’s nextdoor neighbors were cordial and made Jan feel at home, inviting her to come over to visit. This got to be a frequent exchange. Soon the invitation was extended to include meeting with friends who came over to talk about things which Jan enjoyed listening to. She especially appreciated that they prayed together, because this activity was right in Jan’s comfort zone. They were, what? Bahaí’s! OK. Jan knew they were good people, so that was fine with her!
During the years Jan and George spent on Guam the family Freese birthed four children, three boys and a girl. Jan continued to visit the neighbors. One evening she looked out her window to see her neighbor greeting friends she recognized. She had not been invited as she typically was. She was upset! She was so angry she marched right over and sat herself down amongst them, arms akimbo, and asked why she had not been invited! They apologized and outdid themselves welcoming her. This was a Baha’í Feast, they explained, and although only Baha’ís attend Feast, if guests come they are special and welcome. This was a particularly special occasion and she was truly welcome to stay.
Jan was mystified because it was apparent something big was going on. They were preparing for a visitor, and she watched friends bring in contributions for a potluck, and set up card tables and chairs with more fuss than usual. The high energy was because this expected visitor was someone important! The whole crowd was going to greet their guest at the airport. Why was he so important?
She, relishing the joy of the group, fell right into their celebratory mood wondering if this expected guest was a rock star! It seemed like it. His name was not typical for those in her small town in Iowa– Dr. Rahmatullah Muhajir! She laughed when she could not repeat his name after they said it. And then she was hearing words that sounded like a title, “Hand of the Cause of God.” “Oh, heavens!” (as was typically her expression) “This is different!” Clearly she was thoroughly enjoying the newness of this experience.
While she sat observing the goings-on, a banner was being put up. “Allah’u’abha! Welcome, Dr. Muhajir” were the words on this banner. She asked the meaning of the words. ” Allah’u’abha!” said her neighbor. It means, “God is Glorious.” It’s a greeting. Like “Hello!” among Bahaís.”
“Abha!” Jan said aloud. She made out the B(H)A letters on the sign and in that moment a lightbulb went off! She became very excited, waking to the fact that she had found her B, H and A, the letters that she had been told to search for! “I found it! I found the B the H and the A! That’s it!” She was insistently wanting the neighbors to focus on her story and was distracting the friends. “This is what I have always been looking for!” Of course, this excitement was solely hers. No one could grasp what she was going on about, and for them, what was more important was moving forward immediately, getting everyone packed off to the airport to welcome their beloved Hand of the Cause of God, Dr. Rahmatullah Muhajir.
On the way to the airport Jan excitedly explained her discovery and the story behind it of the mysterious visitor at her bedside as a child. She explained that she had kept the promise she made to the lady visitor to look for those letters. This strange story must have aroused a ripple of wonder among these friends. Next the friends gathered to await the arrival of Dr. Muhajir. And soon, Dr. Muhajir arrived, to the happy cheers of the Bahaís of Guam and looked very delighted with the greeting he received. Still at the place of greetings and bouquet offering, Jan was introduced to Dr. Muhajir by her neighbor who alluded to Jan’s excitement and the story she’d told. Jan found herself with Dr. Muhajir, just the two of them walking together. He took her hand and, responding to his genuine cordiality, she got right down to business. She told of her search, of the person at her bedside telling her to look for the letters B, H and A, and her discovery that these letters meant the Baha’í Cause, “So I am a Baha’í!” To this declaration Dr. Muhajir easily said, “Of course you are a Baha’í!” And so she was. Just like that…
It is well known how Dr. Muhajir was a kind, intuitive soul, humble, pure-hearted, with immense spiritual capacity–a kind soul consistently in tune, you might say. He seemed not of this world, but among the Baha’i world’s best servants. The friends joked that the angels of the Concourse surrounded and steered him through life. In the Pacific regions, where he was sent often to guide the Bahaís for the Ten Year Crusade, he would typically fly in, consult and cheer and restore energy like a benevolent typhoon. His guidance and direction were, by all appearance, totally spontaneous. Then at another level, here was Janice Freese, a kindred soul, also in the intuitive plane and safe there. She, simple and pure hearted. From the days in Guan on forward, she advanced through life speaking with certitude of the nearness of God daily, about ‘Abdu’l-Baha, serving the ill and the dying, giving spiritual nudges to whomever she met. She showed up like magic at crucial times for souls alone in their dying days, being their solid presence and comforting them with heartfelt assurance.
On her return from Guam she first landed in Des Moines and connected with Ruth Moffett, who took her under her wings. It was Ruth who urged her toward Dubuque, where Baha’ís were sorely needed. So to Dubuque, her original home base, she returned with her four children. Jan’s siblings, Joey, Gerald, Carmelita (who became a Sister of Presentation in Dubuque), Peggy, and Shirley had also been taken in by the Children’s Orphanage in Dubuque and still lived in the area, so their close bonds were renewed.
In Dubuque, she brought the Baha’í Faith to the attention of a special seeker, Sister of the St. Francis Convent Care Facility, Meg Wegs, whose story is told elsewhere in the Iowa Baha’í History Project.
Through more than twenty-five years in Dubuque, Jan served her calling as a nurse’s aide with a Baha’í spirit that became famous among her co-workers, who spoke of her with awe and respect. Her attention to the ill and dying came from love and the unshakeable faith in life everlasting which she learned at six years of age. Many patients asked for her to sit with them until they passed and she was in her element saying, Allah’u’abha” over and over again as they ascended. God be praised!
1. Note: Mentioning Jan’s father Marcellus here is based on the newspaper reports. Marcellus Westemeier was transported to the University of Iowa hospital for critical burns. His eyes were much damaged. But his bravery was outstanding. He had rushed into the burning home to try to save the children twice. When he was unable to reach the room where Baby Jimmy was, eight-year-old Grace Ann rushed into the conflagration intending to save her baby brother. Marcellus entered again but could only reach Grace Ann. She was alive but died two days after the fire. Several newspapers covered the story, calling Grace Ann a heroine.