Jan Garrity

My beloved wife Jan Garrity passed away peacefully at 10am on Saturday, November 8, 2025, after a 4.5-year battle with Mesonephric Uterine Cancer. After the initial diagnosis in June of 2021, Jan underwent multiple surgeries, multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, a year of immunotherapy which at the end of the year, caused her to develop a tear in her small intestine which resulted in her having to have an ileostomy bag for the last two years of her battle as she went through even more radiation and chemotherapy. Throughout her treatments, Jan was incredibly/amazingly tough and brave - she was truly inspiring. It was a joy for me to help and care for her and as I told her about 20 times a day, helping her and taking care of her was what made my life worth living. I only hope that when my time comes, I can be as tough and brave as she was.

Next, I want to give some history/background - Jan and I met and a dance sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in June of 1976 in Blackfoot, Idaho. Jan had just graduated from Blackfoot High School, and I was just back from a year at University Utah. I was feeling bored and was getting ready to leave the dance and Jan felt a strong prompting that she should do something to get my attention before I left, or she would never see me again - which was definitely true. So, she walked by and simply smiled at me as I was getting ready to leave and I was totally smitten and immediately went back and asked her to dance and we spent the rest of the evening together and I asked for a date the next night. She was perfect - we were absolutely made for each other. I had never been with another

girl that I felt so comfortable and at ease with and she felt the same way about me. We dated all that summer and then she went off to BYU, and I left to serve a mission in Monterrey Mexico for two years. We wrote to each other very regularly and when I returned home in December of 1978, she met me at the airport, and she was SO beautiful I just couldn’t believe it. We were married in the Idaho Falls Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on May 5, 1979.

Once we were married, Jan helped support me as I went to college and tried to decide which career to pursue. Jan worked in a variety of roles ranging from a legal secretary to an administrative assistant at Idaho State University to a telegraph router at Western Union in Salt Lake City and Portland Oregon using a machine called the digilog. She could type more than 130 words a minute and was known all around Western Union as the digilog queen because she was the best. Meanwhile, we were trying to see if we could have a baby but even with some fertility treatments, we were not successful. So, we started to consider adoption and worked with LDS Social Services first in Utah and then in Portland Oregon. The process typically takes several years and one of the first steps is for the adoption agency to do a home inspection to ensure that the facilities are adequate, so we contacted LDS Social Services in Oregon once we got there and scheduled an inspection for December 19, 1984. The representative came to our apartment and checked it out and said everything was fine and then said oh by the way, a baby was born 5 days ago, and we

have fasted and prayed and feel that this baby should be with you - come pick him up tomorrow at 10am! So we had about 15 hours’ notice…but we picked him up and decided to name him Taylor and the next day we loaded him into our car and drove back to Idaho so that we could get some training from our parents on how to care for a baby (e.g. feeding, changing diapers etc.) since we only had a few hours to figure things out. We didn’t say a word to anyone until we walked into our parents’ houses with a new grandson for them and they were definitely surprised, and they were extremely helpful. Taylor and his family with our two wonderful grandchildren have been a great joy to Jan and I and will always be!

After I graduated from college in 1986, we moved back to Idaho and decided to try more fertility treatments and after multiple tries with much stronger treatments, Jan became pregnant initially with triplets and eventually miscarried two and our son Matt was born on July 11, 1988. Matt was also a joy to us despite struggling with anxiety all his life, but he still had a wonderful life trying to help and support others and also loving and caring for a wide variety of animals ranging from dogs to cats to lizards, snakes, spiders, etc. until he unfortunately passed away in 2024. Matt helped us to rescue the cat that Jan is holding in the picture above – we named him Squeegee and he was and is a wonderful comfort animal for both Jan and I. Matt was also and will always be a great joy to Jan and I. Matt and Jan are together with family in heaven now!

Next, I want to talk about Jan and the incredible and wonderful person that she was and is. As I said at the beginning, Jan and I were made for each other and the longer we were together the more and more true and clear this became. Jan was the perfect partner for me - she was always consistent and effective in studying the scriptures and the gospel of Jesus Christ and in praying and receiving inspiration and guidance from Heavenly Father through the Holy Ghost - I always knew I could rely on her to help guide us in our life decisions because she was always right. Towards the end of her life, it was my great privilege to help her and read from the scriptures for her and to listen to the talks from General Conference with her - it was so wonderful! Jan was also extremely well organized and kept track of all of our bills/external business for the entire 46.5 years we were married - it is going to be hard to go on without her. More importantly, she was kind and compassionate and generous and was always trying to do things to help family and friends and even strangers that we ran into. Jan is a member of a wonderful family with 5 sisters and 3 brothers and lots of kind and wonderful cousins and all of them have always been so kind and supportive. Jan and her sisters had a texting thread that they developed, and it was one of the great joys for the last few years of her life. Her sisters Linda, Nancy, Marilyn, Diane and Juli have been so loving and kind and supportive for Jan - it has really helped her and at least in my humble opinion (as I always told her) she was really great at texting kind, funny and loving messages to all of them all the time. Jan also had wonderful and close texting relationships with several female members of our ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints here in Arizona that were also extremely loving and kind and that also helped her greatly. More than anything else though, I want to express my profound gratitude to Jan for her example, her kindness, her integrity, her ability to keep track of so many things and especially her beautiful character and love - that meant absolutely everything to me and still do. I am a much better person for having been with her. I can’t wait to be with her again and forever.