A TRIBUTE TO JANET


From loving husband Steve Klausner:

"Janet was my wife, my lover, my soulmate, my flawless fashion adviser, my completely haphazard investment counselor, my entree to the New York film festival, the books of Charles Bukowski, the joys of never ever paying retail. The woman who taught me to always wear black and, if I knew what was good for me, never wear two-tone anything. She was my partner for life, the selfless mother of my child, the fiercely opinionated step-mother of my son. A Manhattan sophisticate completely at ease at a glittering black-tie gala, a Brooklyn battler who once cheerfully kicked in the door of a New York city bus that refused to admit her with a stroller. But more than anything else, she was my friend. The best friend I've ever had, the best friend I'll ever have. I could write pages, chapters, an entire book about what that means to me. But that won't be necessary, when Aristotle did it for me in one well-chosen sentence: A friend is one soul in two bodies."

From dear friend Wendy Lazar:

"Janet was my best friend. But I have a feeling that many in this room could say the same. We shared our happiest news with Janet, our sad times, our triumphs and our joys. She was information central--our very own global village.
"Her entire life was about making it better. She did it with style, with humor, with panache, and she did it below wholesale.
"She was our facilitator. From one telephone anywhere on the planet, she could arrange a marriage, a business deal, an investment (she did make a few good ones), She was the best, she knew the best, she brought out the best in one and all.
"Before and after she made movies, she was a teacher. A civil libertarian who did not just talk about civil rights, but lived them every day of her life. No student fell outside her reach, no matter how limited their chances were for success.
"She loved being single, but that was before she loved being married to Steve, before she had the fun of taking on a feisty and creative stepson, before she knew true heaven in knowing Alexandra. Loving them and being loved by them was what her life was all about. She mothered with an intensity we have rarely seen--a quality that could only come from the selflessness with which she was gifted by her own mother Sara. To this day, there is more than one person in the room who considers her their "other mother".
"Janet had friends everywhere, in every circle all over the globe, and in every world that she inhabited. She lived her fifty-one years as if it were two lifetimes. And if you measured what she did, who she touched, who she was, two lifetimes fall far short."

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