- Date Of Birth: March 12, 1936
- Date Of Death: February 3, 2018
- State: Maryland
On February 3, 2018, Janice Mae Hamlin (nee Smith), 81, of Brooklyn Park, passed away. She was born in Burkittsville and raised in Middletown, in Frederick County, MD. She lived on a dairy farm, milking cows every morning and evening for 25 cents a week. Upon graduating from high school in 1954 she left Middletown Valley for College Park to earn her Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Maryland. During her college years, she met the love of her life, Don Hamlin, on a double-blind date. After graduation in 1958, they were married and moved to Baltimore, and she began her teaching career.
She taught until their first child, Carole, was born in 1962. John came along in 1965, and for the next several years she was what was called at the time a “Homemaker” (what we now call a “stay-at-home Mom”). But as Carole and John went off to school, so did she, resuming her career in education in 1973 as a teacher’s aide at their elementary school in Baltimore, and later moving to a special needs school on the same campus, where she worked as an aide and community liaison until her retirement in 2000. Retirement didn’t slow her down, though: she was on the Performing Arts Association of Linthicum board, a chapter secretary for AARP and volunteered for Partners in Care in Anne Arundel County, and volunteered with Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland.
Her years were full of personal highlights: Carole and John both graduated from high school and college. Carole met Ray Seeling, and they married 1987; John met Caryn Tormollan and they married in 1991. Grandchildren Adam and Gretchen Seeling came along in 1990 and 1993, and Allison and Kendall Hamlin in 1994 and 1997. She attended and was active in her churches: Brooklyn United Methodist for many years, then Brooklyn Heights United Methodist and Brooklyn Community United Methodist after moving from Baltimore to Brooklyn Park in 1990. She and Don traveled and vacationed with the kids and grandkids, usually bringing along friends and relatives, most often to Rehoboth Beach, DE and Myrtle Beach, SC and a couple of trips to Walt Disney World among other destinations. The most memorable of these was the 2008 Caribbean Cruise to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
Of course everyone endures sad times, and Janice was no exception. Her parents, Russell and Nellie, passed, as did her brother Mike, the youngest of her siblings. Her grandson Stanley was stillborn, and her sister Ruth succumbed after a valiant fight with MS. She suffered sporadically from bouts of depression, at a time when it was much less understood than today. She fought breast cancer and won, and it wasn’t until she was diagnosed with vascular dementia that her health eventually declined, ultimately bringing about her demise.
Through it all, good times and bad, she remained determined in spirit and optimistic of heart, smiling and laughing much more than frowning and crying. She was a wonderful inspiration to her family and friends, co-workers and neighbors, and to the thousands of children she worked with over the years. She was loved, she was blessed, and she’ll be missed.
She is survived by her husband of 59 years, Donald L. Hamlin; loving children, Carole Seeling(Ray), John Hamlin(Caryn); beloved grandchildren, Adam and Gretchen Seeling, Allison and Kendall Hamlin; sisters, Betty Wachter, Barbara Ohler, and Doris Adkins. She was preceded in death by her grandson, Stanley Hamlin; parents, Russell and Nellie (nee Gilbert) Smith; siblings, Ruth Shapard and Michael Smith.
