Janet Marie Schemmel

1927 - 2023

Janet Marie Schemmel

May 14, 1927 – Aug. 5, 2023

MADISON - Janet Marie Schemmel (nee Semanek) passed into Eternal Life with Christ on August 5, 2023, at the age of 96. Janet did small things with great love.

Janet was born to Czechoslovakian immigrants John Semanek and Mary Febish, in Cleveland, Ohio on May 14, 1927. Prior to her birth, Janet's parents had a daughter that lived only briefly, and remained unnamed. When Janet was five, her birth mother passed away and Janet's father subsequently re-married Mary Zahorcsak, who lovingly raised Janet and was the only mother she truly knew and loved. Slovak was the first language spoken in her childhood home, and she peppered Slovak into her daily speech for many years. After she "retired from running liquor" for family members during prohibition, she attended grammar school at St. Benedict's School and John Hay High School, where she was active in student government and was a talented singer. Janet enrolled in the nursing program at Ohio State University and transferred to Saint Louis University where she received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in 1950.

It was while working at St. Louis Veterans Medical Center-Jefferson Barracks that Janet met her husband, Dr. William Louis Schemmel. While the story sounds like legend, it is fact that William and a friend took off from nearby Scott Air Force Base with the intention of "buzzing" the hospital, where a friend was recovering from injury. Upon returning to the base, young William and friend were sternly disciplined for their stunt and forced to return to the hospital to submit their sincere apologies. While at the hospital, they were "offered" a tour of the facilities and their tour guide was none other than the fetching young Janet. Janet and William were united in marriage in Saint Louis at St. Francis Xavier College Church in 1953. Then ensued a series of moves, all coinciding with William's career and ongoing medical education and training, including stops in Hartford, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, and Saint Louis, with children born to the family along the way. The growing family settled in Boulder, Colorado, where they enjoyed many happy years exploring Chataqua Park and the University of Colorado campus. But there was also profound sadness, as Janet and William's son, Peter (September 19, 1964-October 19, 1964) passed away from a heart ailment. The loss of Peter deeply impacted Janet for the rest of her life, and no doubt intensified her reliance on the Blessed Mother and Jesus Christ for guidance and peace of mind. Janet and family finally moved to Madison, Wisconsin in 1970 and made it their final, permanent home. Janet lived in that home for fifty-three years and was fortunate to have peacefully passed in that same house. Janet's nine children attended Edgewood Campus School, Queen of Peace, Edgewood High School and Madison West High School, all active in multiple extracurricular activities of an academic and athletic nature. While it was often challenging to accompany her husband to sporting events (putting it mildly, William had a certain manner of publicly critiquing the intellectual capabilities of coaches and officials), Janet was nonetheless a constant presence. Raising eight boys and a daughter, it was no wonder that Janet enthusiastically supported Wisconsin Badger athletics and made trips to many Badger football regular season and bowl games. She enjoyed the Green Bay Packers but was oddly a Chicago Bears and Northwestern Wildcats fan deep down inside. In recent years, she reveled in competing with and beating her children and grandchildren in Fantasy Football. Janet spent most fall Saturdays watching NCAA football and Sundays watching the NFL, and all winter watching NCAA basketball. The only other programs on her TV were EWTN or QVC.

When it came to raising their children, Janet was the "Yang" to William's "Ying" and always encouraged her kids to do the best they could with what talents they had. Indisputably honest though she was, Janet was also cunning when circumstances required it. In the late 1970s and early 80s, Janet and longtime friend, the late Margie Multerer, created a hot lunch program at Edgewood Campus School. The hot lunch program was a great success, featuring McDonalds hamburgers (with or without onions!), Coney Dogs, sloppy joes and other "healthy" fare. They even introduced the sale of candy and raised a tidy sum. The Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, who had other ideas for the use of the proceeds, were chagrined to learn that sneaky Janet and Margie had "directed" the funds for the purchase of new basketball uniforms. It must have been God's will. Janet was a trickster, and if you didn't know it, you were her next target. But rather than be upset or feel fooled, you always knew that it was through this form of humor that she was just reminding you she loved you.

From a young age, Janet learned gratitude for whatever she had and made the most of her blessings, often magically stretching things to meet the needs of a very large household. She eschewed fashion, makeup and women's magazines, but preferred jeans, t-shirts, and comfy loose-fitting sweatshirts. She famously wore old, beat-up golf shoes while cutting the grass, arguing that the spikes of the shoes functioned to aerate the lawn. Aside from the occasional Delany's steak dinner, Janet didn't care much for the restaurant experience, preferring skillet made porkchops and potatoes while exhibiting a mastery with leftovers. No one went hungry in her home. Many of Janet's children's friends considered the Schemmel house a second home, and she a second mother. The number of times they felt completely free to raid the refrigerator was evidence of their comfort in her home.

Janet was not enamored of material things, and certainly not a collector of expensive personal items. Instead, she collected bulletins from all the Catholic churches she regularly attended in the Diocese of Madison. She preferred reading them before starting the newspaper. Janet knew the full mass schedules at no less than Saint Thomas Acquinas, Our Lady Queen of Peace, and St. Bernards (Middleton). She knew when the fish fries, pancake breakfasts, or ham hocks were coming, and she greatly enjoyed the annual spaghetti dinners at Saint Bernards. Janet was a constant, faithful presence for daily morning and Saturday vigil masses throughout Madison, occasionally remarking that her knees were worn out from all the praying she did for her wayward and misdirected children. You were fortunate if you made her prayer "list", and many are grateful that she had our backs. No doubt, the blessings we've each received are a direct result of her petitions. In the end and in the realm of things that mattered most to her, Janet was a faithful, prayerful and obedient Catholic. She prayed the Rosary and attended mass daily for most of her life, loving and relying on Jesus Christ for everything.

Life was not always easy in a home with nine kids and a sometimes-challenging husband! Not a naturally contentious or argumentative personality, Janet nonetheless skillfully mediated many family disputes, some minor and some serious. She never played favorites and always was even handed with the dispensation of both justice and praise. Janet did not engage in judgment, as she was taught and knew that was not meant for her to undertake. Rather, she believed in honest acknowledgment of mistakes, forgiveness, acceptance, and moving forward.

As humbly as Janet lived her life, she possessed tremendous joy, honor and dignity in her career as a nurse. It was the perfect life vocation for her, as she was able to do what she loved and naturally did best, which was to care for others. Beginning her nursing career she worked in hospitals, and she spent the final two and one-half decades of her long career as the night nurse/nursing supervisor at Oakwood Lutheran Nursing Home, caring for the most vulnerable and needy members of the community. She was universally loved and respected by patients and colleagues for her nursing skill, grace and craft.

Janet worked hard, every day and every night, as mother, a wife, a nurse, a volunteer, a neighbor, a friend, an example for others, and most of all, as a servant of God. Janet was a naturally gentle soul who knew no other way except humility, generosity and perseverance. It was hard for her to see anyone in pain or in need, and she instinctively acted to ease suffering. A natural born caregiver, she was unutterably tender in her care of babies and sick children. As children, she regularly prayed with us and sang to us. Though her manner was quiet and unassuming, when firm or blunt direction was needed, she certainly provided it. Whatever it took, but always the small things with great love. We consider ourselves forever blessed to call her our mom.

Janet was predeceased by her father and mother, John and Mary, and stepmother Mary, by her sister, (unnamed), by her husband, William, and by her sons, Peter and Stephen. She is survived by daughter, Susan, and sons Scott (Kim), John, James (Susan), Judd (Lisa), Matthew, Mark (Jennifer Harrington), and Luke (Jonathan). Janet is survived by nineteen grandchildren and seventeen great grandchildren.

A Mass of Christian Burial with Father Brian Wilk as celebrant will be held for Janet at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023, at ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CATHOLIC PARISH, 602 Everglade Drive, Madison, WI 53717. The Mass can be viewed online at the parish YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/c/StThomasAquinasChurchMadison. Prior to the Mass, a visitation and viewing will be available beginning at 9 a.m. for anyone who wishes to attend. The Mass will be followed by a Right of Committal burial service at Resurrection Cemetery. A luncheon will be held in the social hall at St. Thomas Aquinas immediately following the burial service.

The family asks that anyone interested, in lieu of flowers, make donations to St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Parish.

Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com.

Gunderson West

Funeral and Cremation Care

7435 University Ave.

(608) 831-6761