Janet C. Trawinski

Janet C. Trawinski (née Nelson) of Carlstadt, New Jersey, died peacefully at home on Thursday, June 12, 2025, at the age of 73. Janet died from the devastating effects of Stage 4 metastatic ovarian cancer. Janet was initially diagnosed with Stage 3C ovarian cancer in August of 2020, and for over 4 years and 9 months, she waged a hard-fought, ongoing, and valiant battle against this insidious disease.
During her brave and continuous fight against ovarian cancer, and although she suffered constant pain, peripheral neuropathy, and even broke her left hip on July 8, 2024 - her 73rd Birthday - she never complained about her serious medical issues. During 2024, Janet courageously spent over 150 days in three different hospitals and four different rehabilitation facilities, and stoically in 2025, another 24 days in another hospital and in another rehabilitation facility. Janet was a true Warrior!
Janet is survived by her beloved husband of 46 years, Edward, whom she always affectionately called "Eddie," and her three beautiful, caring, loving, and wonderful daughters, Jennifer Mary Detmer (Nicholas) of Carmel, Indiana; Carolyn Janet Trawinski of Hoboken, New Jersey; and Valerie Christine Hess (Alexander) of Glen Ridge, New Jersey; her amazing and fantastic grandson, Lucas H. ("Lukie") Detmer of Carmel, Indiana, for whom she was, and always will be, "Gammy"; and her brother, Michael C. Nelson (Linda) of Memphis, Tennessee. Janet is also survived by her mother-in-law, Henrietta ("Pat") Trawinski; her sisters-in-law, Judith Trawinski and Laura Trawinski; her brothers-in-law, Robert Trawinski, Richard Trawinski, and Thomas Donofrio; and many nieces, nephews, and cousins. Janet was the loving, caring, supportive, and devoted daughter of the late Walter C. Nelson and Herta F. Nelson. She was also predeceased by her sister-in-law, Linda Trawinski Donofrio, who courageously battled breast cancer.
Janet was born on July 8, 1951, in Dumont, New Jersey. She spent her formative years in New Milford, New Jersey, with her loving and supportive parents, Walter and Herta, and her older brother, Michael. She attended New Milford's public schools and graduated from New Milford High School in 1969, where she was a member of their Color Guard team - Go Green Knights! She always loved New Milford. New Milford was, and always will be, in her heart and in her soul. She faithfully attended many of the New Milford High School reunions, reminiscing with her many friends. When Janet and Eddie married at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Passaic, New Jersey, on July 22, 1978, Janet was living at her beloved family home in New Milford.
Janet graduated from Rider University in 1973 with a Bachelor of Science Degree as a Business Education Major. At Rider, her activities and societies included: Delta Zeta Sorority, the Student Education Association, and the New Jersey Business Education Association. She also attended Montclair State University from 1974 to 1981, receiving a Master's Degree in Business Education in 1981 - a few months before the birth of her first daughter, Jennifer. Janet also attended New Jersey City University from 1998 to 2000, where she earned an ESL (English as a Second Language) Certification.
Throughout her life, Janet was a passionate educator. During her teaching career, she loved all of her students and she treated them with care, compassion, love, and ultimate devotion. Janet began her illustrious teaching career in the Fall of 1973 at Glen Rock Junior-Senior High School at only 22 years old. She was in the Business Education Department and met her future mother-in-law, Henrietta ("Pat") Trawinski, in the Fall of 1975. Janet then met her future husband, Eddie, on a blind date on February 28, 1976, at the suggestion of Henrietta. At Glen Rock Junior-Senior High School, Janet taught the following subjects: Personal Typing, Typing 1B, Shorthand I and II, Stenoscript, Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Business Principles. In addition, she also served as Color Guard Advisor, Assistant Cheerleading Coach, and Secretary of the Faculty Advisory Committee, and she also served on the Community Team for Middle States Accreditation.
Janet left Glen Rock Junior-Senior High School in April of 1981, having been there for almost eight years - right before the birth of her daughter Jennifer. After the birth of Jennifer, Janet became a stay-at-home mom at the house in Bergenfield, New Jersey that Janet and Eddie purchased in January of 1981 and lived in until May of 2011, well over 30 years. Their second daughter, Carolyn, was born in June of 1985, and their third daughter, Valerie, was born in August of 1988. While a stay-at-home mom, Janet still also held many part-time employment positions: Legal Secretary for her husband's law practice; Adult Education Instructor for various business-related courses at Tenafly High School, Ridgewood High School, and Rutherford High School; personal tutoring sessions in Shorthand; and Adjunct Instructor in Introduction to Keyboarding at Bergen Community College. Janet received her best teaching position when she was hired in 1996 by Passaic City Public Schools as a Basic Skills Instructor at School No. 2, a K-2 public school. It was the same school that Eddie's Uncle Joe attended as a young child. Janet taught at School No. 2 from 1996 to the end of the 2013–2014 school year. She cherished her stay there, and she loved her students and had many teacher friends.
She concluded her teaching career in November of 2014 after teaching Business Education courses at Passaic High School. Janet loved the children at School No. 2 so much that after she retired, she would come back to read them Dr. Seuss books on National Read Across America Day. After retiring as an Elementary School Teacher, Janet worked as a Legal Secretary at her husband's law firm in Roseland, New Jersey.
Janet and Eddie's Wedding Reception on July 22, 1978, was held at the Fiesta in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey, the same venue where their beautiful and amazing 40th Wedding Anniversary Party was held on July 22, 2018, with many family members and friends in attendance. Their three fantastic daughters, Jennifer, Carolyn, and Valerie, planned the entire event as a surprise, and Janet was so pleased and so happy at this awesome undertaking! Janet danced up a storm, like she danced at so many family celebrations, Knights of Columbus dinners, and other events. Janet always loved to dance!
Janet and Eddie first lived in an apartment complex in Passaic before they started raising their family in Bergenfield. Janet did everything for her daughters. She took them to Daisies, Brownies, Girl Scouts, T-Ball games, softball, soccer, basketball, dancing, dance recitals, the Bergenfield Swim Club, libraries, religious instruction, plays, track, cross-country, shopping, etc. Janet would do anything for her daughters - she loved them with devotion, care, support, and compassion. She would protect them to the nth degree. If there were a Marvel movie about families, Janet would be cast as the Fierce Protector. When the girls were little, she always picked out matching outfits for them because she loved how adorable they looked side by side.
Janet's beautiful and loving relationship with her daughters was strongly evident in the way that they consistently rallied around her during her battle with ovarian cancer. They were always there for Janet with phone calls, texts, visits, dropping off food, etc. Their unwavering care, love, and support for their amazing mother was always present, and they were all there for her until the very end. They acted with the same love, care, support, and devotion for their mother that Janet had for her mother, Herta. For years, Janet would visit her mother every day and care for her, first in her apartment and then at a nursing facility in New Milford, even while working full-time as a teacher in Passaic. Janet showered her mother with love, comfort, and unwavering devotion.
Janet also loved to needlepoint. Her needlepoint creations were such detailed and artistic endeavors. She also loved to read - she read so many books! She also loved watching her favorite television shows, like Abbott Elementary, This Is Us, The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Schitt's Creek, The White Lotus, Everybody Loves Raymond, and The Odd Couple.
During the last few years, Janet would watch all of her favorite television shows and movies on her tablet. Her phone and her tablet were constantly with her in her hospital bed. She loved the Beatles the best - especially Paul McCartney. When she was young, she had every Beatles album and even attended their show at Shea Stadium in 1965. She loved attending shows and concerts, and saw Paul McCartney in concert at least three times, as well as Ringo Starr, The Eagles, Elton John, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, The Beach Boys, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire, Joan Rivers, and even a live taping of The View.
Janet also loved to swim. In her early days, she swam at Hackensack Golf Club in Oradell, New Jersey. During the early 1990s, Janet and her family joined the Bergenfield Swim Club. How Janet loved the Bergenfield Swim Club! Besides continuing her love for swimming, Janet helped the girls do so many activities there, and Janet arranged for birthday parties and family events to be held at the Swim Club. She was a great event planner - everyone loved the parties! Janet also loved the Jersey Shore - swimming in the ocean, going to the Trawinski family house in Chadwick Beach, and strolling the Boardwalk. Janet also loved all the long road trips that she went on with Eddie and her daughters to places like Disney World in Florida; Hilton Head, South Carolina; Indianapolis and Carmel, Indiana; and Montreal, Canada. Janet also loved the airplane trips that she made with her family to Bermuda; Los Angeles, California; San Francisco, California; Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; and Orlando, Florida.
Janet was truly the love of Eddie's life. Janet deeply and devotedly loved her husband, Eddie. Janet was always her husband's rock. They knew each other for over 49 years. Janet always helped and supported her husband in his professional legal career. She attended many of his work-related dinners and his Knights of Columbus events. She especially loved going to New York to be with Eddie at his Fordham Prep reunion dinners. She truly enjoyed being with many of Eddie's high school classmates and their spouses. She was also adept at winning many of the weekly riddles shared by one of Eddie's Prep classmates.
Janet was a devout Roman Catholic. She was a member of St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Bergenfield, and later of St. Therese of Lisieux Roman Catholic Church in Cresskill, where she also volunteered. Janet, in her early years, was a member of the New Milford Presbyterian Church - the same church where her daughter Jennifer and her son-in-law, Nicholas, were married in 2010. Janet converted to Roman Catholicism after her marriage, and eventually received Confirmation at the same time as her lovely sister-in-law, Linda. Janet made sure that all three daughters attended Religious Education classes in the Roman Catholic faith. She would attend Mass, when able, and pray to God often. Janet always had religion in her soul!
Janet spent the last two months of her life confined to a hospital bed at the apartment in Carlstadt, New Jersey that she and her husband resided in since May of 2011. She was sent to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Hospital on March 20 of this year - her husband's 74th birthday - and there she developed COVID. She was then released to a rehabilitation facility in Paramus, where she was eventually discharged on April 12th. Although Janet experienced relentless pain and discomfort for the last two months of her life, she still maintained her mental faculties, her wit, her compassion, and her love for her family. Her husband took great care of her, and whenever she was awake, he was by her side.
On the afternoon before she died, she was able to communicate with the hospice chaplain. When he asked about a religious hymn, she requested that he play "Ave Maria" on his phone. She was so grateful! Janet valiantly and heroically fought Stage 4 metastatic ovarian cancer to the end.
Janet was the most wonderful person in the world! She would do anything and everything for her husband, her daughters, her grandson, and for the rest of her family and friends. She never asked for anything in return. She never complained about anything or anyone. She always had a beautiful smile for everyone. She was the kindest, warmest, most caring, most thoughtful, and most loving person that ever graced this earth! She was truly a Saint! Heaven will now have the Sweetest Angel!
She will be sorely missed by all of her family and her friends, and especially by her beloved husband, her wonderful daughters, and her amazing grandson.
With regard to Janet, the story comes to mind that when a ship leaves this shore, you can see the ship until it goes over the horizon; but the ship is not gone - it simply is arriving for those who wait for it on the other side. Beloved Janet suffers no more pain. On the other side, she will be reunited with her loving parents and her grandparents, and all of her other relatives and friends, her husband's relatives, and she will finally get to meet Eddie's father.
Although everyone will miss the physical presence of beloved Janet, we should all be happy for her because she is in pain no longer. We also know that someday, we will all be together with Janet on the other side, happy with her and pain-free, and basking in eternal life with the radiance and the brilliance of God's warmth, grace, and love.
Visiting Friday, June 20, 4 - 8 PM at the Shook Funeral Home, 639 Van Houten Ave., Clifton. Funeral Saturday, June 21, 8:45 AM at the funeral home and 10 AM at St. Joseph RC Church, Passaic. Interment, George Washington Memorial Park, Paramus.
May God bless Janet and may she Rest in Peace.
Amen.
Shook Funeral Home, Inc.