Little Janette lay in a coma in the Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast. She had just passed her eleventh birthday on the eighth of September 1941. Angels were all around her, watching over her. So many people had come and gone from the hospital room, Mamma, Daddy, aunts, uncles, her teacher, and even her big brother Richard had been there. Everyone looked so sad. Mamma tried not to cry, but tears streamed down her cheeks. Dr. Carl Stevens and the nurses were tenderly caring for her. She heard them say that her fever was dangerously high. Dr. Carl couldn’t seem to bring it down.

There seemed to be so much sadness in the room, but the angels didn’t cry. They sang to her, reminding her that she would soon meet Jesus.

Janette had been born in Northport, on the farm where her younger siblings had also been born. Daddy, Amon Morse, born in Belmont, was a farmer, as well as being a horse and cattle dealer. Mamma had been Mary Lermond, born in Lincolnville.

Janette had lived a happy childhood. Sometimes Richard would put her on the big old horse behind him, and they’d ride the six miles to Granpa and Grammy Lermond’s in Lincolnville. There they played with all of the cousins, Little Allen, Jennie, Marian and Polly. She remembered one day when Granpa had scolded Richard, his namesake, about something he’d done. He came out of the house to see Richard putting the bridle onto the horse, with Janette already sitting on the horse’s back. “Where are you going?”, Grampa asked. “I’m taking Janette home with me,” was Richard’s reply. One of them could be as stubborn as the other.

Janette, Richard and Isabel attended the one-room Brainard School. Cousin Bertha Dean, and her older brothers lived across from the school. Mrs. Woodbury was her teacher. The children loved to play Hop-Scotch, Ring-Around-The-Rosie, Kick the Can and other games at recess time.

When Janette was four and a half years old, Isabel was born, followed the next year by Raymond. Annie was born when Janette was seven years old. The next year, 1939, a woman called a midwife stayed with Mamma. The doctor came with his black bag, and the children were told that they had a baby sister. “Oh no, another girl!” Janette said.

She was a little mother to the younger children while Mamma worked in the garden and the fields helping Daddy with the farm work.

Richard and Bertha’s brothers, Kenneth and John, loved to tease her. Once when she and Bertha climbed up the hill behind the barn to pick blueberries, they saw something big and black in the upper corner of the field. The two little girls ran all the way to the house, excitedly telling everyone that they’d seen a man in a bear coat. The grown-ups believed that they’d actually seen a bear.

In early 1941, there was talk of War with Europe by the adults. It was scary, but didn’t mean much to children, though they sensed the fear. One winter day, Richard, Janette and Isabel were in the pasture behind the barn when they heard a large plane going over. Richard yelled to them, “Get down on the ground! Get face down on the ground!” Janette held tight to Isabel’s hand, both being very frightened, did as they were told, and lay face down in the snow. It was awhile until Richard said that it was safe to get up because the plane had passed over. When they got up, their faces had left prints in the cold snow, looking as though it was a mold. They raced back to the safety of the old farmhouse.

Janette did very well in school. Mrs. Woodbury called her an excellent student. When her work was done, she would help the younger students with their lessons, especially her younger siblings, Isabel and Raymond.

Janette had been having headaches, but what did a child know about headaches? One day in September of 1941, Mamma and Daddy were going to Union Fair with their friends, Ralph and Hazel Knight. Janette and Isabel went taken to Aunt Margaret’s; Annie and Raymond went to Aunt Mildred’s, while baby Sylvia stayed with Aunt Callie and the girls.

Aunt Margaret was getting lunch for her three girls, Janette and Isabel. Janette huddled behind the wood cook stove, shivering, trying to get warm. The heat from the stove felt so good, but it did not keep her warm. She was too sick to play with Polly. She began to shake. Aunt Margaret felt her brow, and she was burning up with fever. She phoned Aunt Mildred, the only aunt to have a driver’s license. Aunt Mildred came down and took Janette to see Dr. Carl in Belfast, who immediately put her in the hospital.

Daddy and Mamma came as soon as they got home from the Fair. Dr. Carl said that he was keeping her in the hospital until they could find out what the problems were. He diagnosed her with a sinus infection with a long name. He said that he’d have to operate as soon as they got her fever down closer to normal. But her fever didn’t come down. She slipped into a coma.

Janette didn’t know what all of the fuss was about, because her hospital room was filled with angels. Some were fanning her face, some were putting a cool hand on her brow, some were gently rocking her, while others sang.

Every day a nurse would bring in a handful of cards from her classmates, neighbors and relatives. Many sent her gifts, a little red pocketbook that visitors put change into, three new dolls, something that she didn’t have at home, new doll dress, bird and flower books, a little glass mother elephant with two baby elephants with chains to the mother, a Kaleidoscope, and other little gifts.

One day Dr. Carl said that he had to perform the operation. The nurses shaved her head in preparation, putting her hair into a candy box. Mamma had her own long hair cut to make a wig for Janette when she went home. But the home that she would be going to, was not in Northport.

More and more angels came. On the morning of the third of October, the room grew brighter. There was Grampa Lermond, baby brothers, Alton and Bernard, Little Allen, Daddy’s grandmother, and so many others, waiting with open arms. Jesus reached down to her, telling her that it was time to come Home with Him. The angels carried her across the chasm behind the veil of death. Oh, what a beautiful place!

Janette saw Mamma and Daddy back at the farm. Daddy sat on the wood box with his head in his hands crying. He’d given blood for a transfusion for her. He’d had hospitalized a year before with blood poison. He thought that his blood was not good for her, though Dr. Carl assured him that it had been. The little body that she had dwelled in on earth laid in a lovely casket in the front room. Mamma came in often, kissing her and crying over her coffin. She brought cousins, Jennie, Marian, Polly and Bertha in to say good-bye to Janette. Mamma’s heart was broken.

Mamma, Daddy, Isabel, Richard and all of the others - don’t cry for me, for I am in a happy place. Don’t grieve for me. I am not in the coffin. I am not in the grave. I now live in Heaven above with Jesus, and God His Father, where the angels sing. I’m with all of those who have gone before.

Weep not for me. I am always near, and we will all be together in this lovely place one day, to be forever with the Lord. When you look at the pictures of me, and stand by my grave, weep for yourselves, but not for me.

Little Janette Mary Morse was eleven years and two weeks old when she slipped away in death.  She was laid to rest in Union Cemetery in Lincolnville with six generations of her ancestors, all of whom met her at the Golden Gates of Heaven.