Jan Helen Partridge (Chatard): ‘A big believer in birthdays and all holidays’

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Our mother, Jan Helen Partridge (Chatard) has passed on. After a long cold winter full of earth quakes, snow storms and a terribly sudden diagnosis of a rare and aggressive brain cancer, our mother left this world at 10 am, on Good Friday April 7th, 2023. As the sun finally came out, with the mist rising from the land she had lived and loved on for 44 years, she passed gracefully. Her four children, two son in laws, her four cats and family dog near.

After many days together in the hospital, we were able to bring mom home to the off grid land she loved, right before Christmas. Our family braved the long winter staying together, with the honor of caretaking mom as an incredibly strong team. Taking turns providing her with around the clock care with the help and guidance of The Heart of the Redwoods Hospice. We spoiled her the very best we could. We baked endless batches of cookies for her newly acquired sweet tooth. We burned copious amounts of wood to keep the house crazy hot at all times which she loved. We recorded and shared as many stories as mom could tell and soaked up every moment of her well lived life. We laughed a lot, cried a lot and cooked a lot! We celebrated Christmas and New Years, moms 72nd birthday, and the birthdays of Oceanna and Jason. Many hard, beautiful, and brave moments were lived together by the family. However no one was as brave, kind, funny, and seemingly content as our strong, beautiful mother in her last days. Greeting us warmly with “good morning babies!”

To honor our mother who was an avid writer, historian and storyteller, we have worked together to remember, write down and share this highlighted narrative of her life.

Jan Helen Partridge was born in a snowstorm on January 7th, 1951, to Ida Helen (Holman) Partridge, and John Wilford Partridge. She was raised between Pennsauken New Jersey and the home of her grandparent’s in New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania. Her story cannot be told without talking about how deeply she cared for her family and it’s history. It was very important to her that we understood the love and strong roots that she came from. Some of her bloodline being among the first settlers in America, she was very proud that her relatives still own the same family farm after hundreds of years. She often spoke of the many documented contributions her ancestors had in forming the United States, and the historic figures the family knew including Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington and Thomas Edison. As much as she loved her California home, she was very connected in her heart to the East coast, to the many family and friends she had there, her heart often felt torn between two worlds.

Jan’s father John met her mother Ida while teaching at Carson Long Military institute, which mom would proudly point out was the oldest boarding school in the United States. The home of her grandparents, “The Maples” was located on the grounds of Carson Long. A role passed down through generations, at that time the school was ran by her grandfather Colonel Edward Holman, “Daddy Ed”. This home was the center of so many of her wonderful childhood memories. Jan with her two sisters, eleven cousins and friends having free reign to the campus and all of the magical nooks and crannies, her childhood was full of fun and family and love. John and Ida raised their three girls, Jan being the baby, middle Sarah Lee, and eldest Margret Anne, in New Jersey. Her father John was the principle of the brand new Pennsauken High School. She was proud that her father chose the school colors that are the same today, blue and yellow. Her doting, beautiful and funny mother Ida, who she adored , tragically passed when Jan was just 13.

After her mothers passing Jan became even closer to her grandparents. She lovingly always said Daddy Ed was her best friend. Colonial Edward Holman was an amazing example to so many young men and his family, and was a writer and a poet. He was married to Anna Helen (Bower) Holman, Jans beloved beautiful “Nana” who she called a true living saint. Together they were health food advocate before their time, and gardeners among many other things. Her grandparents had a huge influence on her life, she would become a lifetime gardener and farmer herself. She planted some of Nanas Irises from the Maples in Whale Gulch where they still bloom today.

Two short years after her mother Ida passed, Jan was hit from behind by a drunk driver while walking along the roadside at age 15. The impact was so severe it threw her fifty feet forward. In the hospital her heart stopped, she then experienced a vision where her mother told her it was not her time, that she needed to go back to take care of her father. She was hospitalized for months with incredibly brutal treatments that traumatized her, and had to endure years of physical therapy. She was told that she would never walk again or birth children. Jan overcame the odds through hard work perseverance and faith. However, these injures would leave her in chronic pain for the rest of her life. This was devastating to a young dancer, cheerleader and member of the marching band. Yet as she would continue to do throughout her life, she braved it against all challenges, moved forward, and learned to walk again.

During these difficult years, Jan helped to care for her father while her sisters were off at college. John was a brilliant man and loving father, she was a daddy’s girl, and they were incredibly close. John had earned a purple heart from saving his entire platoon in the Korean War. However, sadly, he suffered from chronic health issues and scars from the war. 
After only one year of college, majoring in community development, on a visit home to her beloved Maples, she met a man named Bud Kenny. He was a man with wanderlust and a plan to walk across the United States with a dog and horse in tow. Jan decided to defy the doctors that said she would never walk again, and with wanderlust of her own, sold her yellow VW Bug to buy hiking supplies. Newly in love, Jan then joined Bud on an incredible Journey. Together they had many adventures, the story of their travels often being printed in the local papers of the towns they passed through. Traveling with little to no money, they learned to forage and eat from the land. She was forever changed by her time living with the Native Americans in the Black Hills, a place and people that she would continue to carry a deep love for throughout her life.

At one point in their journey, in order to brave a cold winter in Wisconsin they outfitted a cave to live in. The cave was located across a frozen cornfield near the home of their friends at “Full Moon Farm”. This is where she adopted her children’s future “nanny”, her ever faithful, beloved dog Chester. Jan and Bud outfitted him with a little pack to carry some of his own food, and when the ground thawed, they set off from there onto the road again. Jan and Chester eventually split off from Bud, who remained a friend until his passing, and traveled together to Humboldt County. Somewhere on her journey she had seen a book of homemade off grid redwood houses (one was the home of Nancy who would later become a dear life long friend), and she wanted to see the homes for herself. She also wanted to make her way to Mount Shasta, which later became a very special spiritual place for her.

While hitchhiking with Chester, in front of the Sherwood Forrest motel in Garberville, Southern Humboldt California, she would have a chance meeting that would change the course of her life. She met a man who offered to give her and Chester a ride up to Harris to attend the birthday party of a friend. Here she would meet our future godmother Jill. Jan was so impressed by Jill ‘s red headed beauty, how she would ride naked and bareback between the new homestead‘s being built by hand by “hippies” in the rolling hills. She would also meet Fredy, a Vietnam veteran who moved to the hills to build his own homestead and dream. Jan was fascinated by the people and so much of the lifestyle she encountered there. Her new friends were in turn fascinated by the stunningly beautiful young girl from the east coast, in her hand sewn reversible skirt, traveling on foot and hitchhiking alone with her faithful dog.

Fredy, who would also become a close lifelong friend, offered her a place to stay on his property in Harris near where they were building the locally famous “Nonagon”. There she farmed with some of the first people in Humboldt County to produce seedless Sinsemilla, which became a helpful gift throughout her life. 
From Harris California she moved to Piercy California to live in Resting Oak Village on the Eel River. She loved the river and Resting Oak and the community she made there. In 1977 a friend told Jan about a man she wanted her to meet in the small coastal community of Whale Gulch. This man was Douglas Anthony Chatard who would later become the father to three of her five children. After a chance meeting while passing in cars on the Briceland Road, Doug told her he was on his way to buy kelp meal for his garden, she would say that was when she instantly fell for him. Jan and Doug had their first date in Garberville where they ate at “The House of Burgess” and then watched Bugsy Malone at the Garberville theater.

The love of Jan’s life, Doug was diagnosed
with hemophilia at a young age. Like Jan, he suffered an incredible amount of chronic pain. However together, both determined, idealistic, and true believers in the back to the land movement, they built an abundant happy life together.
They loved to garden, create ceremonies, officiate weddings and christenings, hold powerful life affirming prayer circles, create and be a part of our community, host famous party’s and many friends, help build and teach at the Whale Gulch school ,and work on their handcrafted homestead. They would read tarot cards, study astrology, cook great food, make home made wine, soak in their redwood hot tub, make healthy children and film and photograph it all.

A tradition we still hold today, Doug started the ceremony of the May pole at the community meadow. Now the may pole is strung with bright colored ribbons, back then mom would spend hours sewing strips of old sheets together to wrap the pole with. As a couple they built a beautiful homestead with ponds and flowers, vegetable gardens and fruit trees. They endlessly canned homegrown food and made three baby girls. Doug was already a proud father to his first born beautiful daughter, Autumn Holly, who was four years old when Jan met them. Holly had a little sister, Brandie Lee, who would also become a sister to us. Growing up they lived nearby in Whale Gulch. Oceanna Dawn Chatard was born at dawn on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1979 at resting Oak Village in Piercy. Serina Eden Chatard was born at home in Whale Gulch on July 6th 1983. Valery Blaze Chatard would come into this world on April 11, 1985, as the first breach baby born at the Garberville Hospital.

For some years our little family lived happily together at the homestead, including wonderful trips back home to the Maples, and to LA, Doug’s childhood home.
In 1987 shorty after his 40th birthday, Doug was diagnosed with the little known or understood HIV virus he contracted from one of the frequent blood transfusions that were needed in treatment of his hemophilia. Although they hoped to have their official wedding on 8/8/88, in succession to their famous Pisces party of 7/7/77, they had their own spiritual wedding ceremony together at home. Doug would tragically pass on June the 10th, 1987.

After the unexpected and devastating loss of Doug, Jan did an amazing job at the incredibly difficult task of raising three girls alone. All while enduring the strong fear and stigma she carried from the new and feared HIV/AIDS virus that she never contracted. Jan managed to provide for her children while doing her best to keep up some of the traditions and the land that was Doug’s legacy.

Many years after Doug’s passing Jan met the future father of her two sons, John Mayhan at the Presbyterian Church in Garberville. John had two daughters, Robin and Elise. John and Jan married in the Whale Gulch community center in, with the five girls serving as flower girls. John and Jan would have their first son, Loren Kennady Mayhan , on September 24th, 1990. A very sweet and beautiful boy with a serious brow, Loren crushingly passed from SIDS later that year. The birth of Avery Dorian Leet Love on July 9th, 1993, when mom was 42, was a rebirth for our family. Born at the Garberville Hospital, he became the light of all our lives with his blond cherub head and peaceful nature. Jan and John would eventually separate.

She would marry once more to Nathan Alexander, they divorced after a few years. Alone as a single mother, there were some difficult times. However she managed to make sure her children always had love, home, travel, dancing and laughter, amazing holidays and birthdays, and confidence in who we were. She was always telling us that we were smart, capable and beautiful. Reminding us to live in the moment because “you only are where you are”, and would tell us “I could not be more proud of my babies”. She was a big believer in birthdays and all holidays, we did our best to always be together for these events, even when the kids took turns moving away for school.

As children, mom had an Easter bunny suit that a friend would wear to delight the kids at the Easter egg hunt at the community meadow. We would color dozens of eggs to hide, and she would dress her girls in beautiful Easter dresses and bonnets that we loved. She would always buy extra bonnets for other kids who wanted them. Halloween was usually cold in the community meadow at our trade fair event so she would dress us up, layering us with tights and full sleeve leotards under our costumes, Avery always with extra shoes socks and sweaters. We did not love itchy leotards as much as Easter dresses. In July, she would buy a stash of fireworks and light them on our winter holidays, we would dance and clap and holler, a highlight of those celebrations. She loved a nice loud Piccolo Pete that she would light to playfully roust us from our beds, announce Christmas morning, or to try and scare elk away from the fruit trees. She was a staunch believer that everyone including adults should have a toy to play with at Christmas. On New Year’s Eve, she could be heard with her beautiful voice singing the national anthem. Before she headed off to bed on holidays, she always insisted that everyone gather together and stand in parallel lines, take turns going in the center and doing a solo dance move down the line. We call this fantastic and recommended tradition our “line dance”.

Beautiful childhood memories were made in the living room of our little Redwood house, with the golden evening sun reflecting off the ocean and shinning through our windows. Mom drinking homemade wine joyfully dancing with her kids to Cat Stevens and Motown on the record player. She always made sure we had good music and good speakers. She was a gifted singer, self-taught guitar and piano player, a dancer, a gardener, a creative and thoughtful gift giver and wrapper. She was a prolific bulb and flower giver and card sender. She was an amazing pet whisper, pet namer and caretaker. With a clever sense of humor truly unparalleled, she would make you laugh until you cried. She loved to travel, Hawaii and the East coast being the closest to her heart. With a special ability to relate to everyone and with an inclusive heart, even sometimes with impatient eye rolls from her kids, she literally made friends everywhere she went. Jan also had a special gift with children, who she loved most of all.

Mom was very happy, content and settled in her life at her homestead in Whale Gulch. She enjoyed her gardens, animals, ponds, community events and family. Her children making sure she was taken care of and helping with the vigorous off grid life style.

Mom would say the reflection of the moon on the ocean was her favorite thing. She was known as Madam Moon to many, and would say “Madam Moon knows all” as a way to tease her kids and their friends from trying to hide anything. Somehow she did always know, and was almost always right on target with her “madam moon mom isims”.

She was a proud American, Christian lady. She was a Spirulina, Nutritional Yeast, Cayenne and Ginseng lover, tarot reader, photographer and incredible poem and journal writer. Every night before bed she would tell her children “Don’t forget to write in your journal and say your prayers”. Throughout all the loss and love and fight and joy that was her life, she remained brave, kind, feisty, hilarious, generous, incredibly strong and fiercely independent. She liked to look nice and sometimes color her hair, but she was the least materialistic person you knew. Jan was very happy living very simply. Most importantly to us and to her, she was our beloved, loving, beautiful, funny, amazing mommy.
She said “I have always been the most fortunate person to have the best of friends”. She loved her children, friends and family with every waking moment. She spoke of her friends and East coast family daily. She cherished her five nieces and nephews incredibly dearly. She loved the tittle of “Gran-Jan” to her nieces and nephews children, who she adored. She was grateful for dear friends and neighbors the Uminas, who are family. She held very close and special relationships with her son in laws Shaun and Jason, who she would lovingly refer to as son. Madam Moon truly knows all now and we will forever miss her and love her and be grateful for all she has shown us.

Jan Helen Partridge is survived by the family mentioned in this story, and all the animals and trees and plants she loved so much.