Juanita “Janie” Martinez Perez is a woman whose hands are very full. She’s the owner and operator of a 165-acre dairy farm with 39 Holstein cows, 14 heifers, 8 calves and 10 horses, the mother of a 14-year-old son whom she home schools and she’s newly widowed.
Jesus “Jessie” Perez, her late husband, was struck by lightning on the morning of Oct. 8, 2009, while checking on a calf during a thunderstorm.
Janie was raised in Joliet, Ill., and also her parents’ native country of Mexico. Jessie was born and raised in Mexico. After marrying, they lived in Illinois, including two years in Chicago. Jesse became a US citizen in 2008.
“All the time living in the city, every chance we got, we went to the country. I told Jessie, we really should go to see my uncle. He has a dairy farm near Phillipsburg, Mo., and we finally came to visit in 1996. My uncle really needed help. His kids had left the area, so we stayed to help.”
In 1999, they bought the dairy farm from her uncle. In 2005, Janie was diagnosed with cancer and as a result, she and Jessie had many conversations about subjects that many couples never discuss.
“I always thought I would go first, after the cancer. We talked about these things and we both knew we wanted to be cremated. Years ago, when I worked for UPS, we would pack people’s ashes and it always kind of creeped me out. Now, having his ashes here is a comfort,” she smiled and indicated a simple yet stately box on its own table, on one side of her living room.
Marcos, her son, and No. 1 hand in the dairy operation is a friendly teen, interested in computers and sci-fi everything, not unlike many kids his age. Despite all her fond remembrances of the past, Janie’s mind is firmly on the future as well. “Marcos has been home schooled since the last years of grade school,” she explained, “but I’d really like him to attend Catholic high school in Springfield. I went to Catholic school and it was good.
“Jessie loved the farm, his cows, his horses and his dog who died a month and a day after he did. She was the only one who was with him more than me. After Jessie died, my parents wanted me to sell everything and move back home, but I was like, no, this is my home. I can lay down like the dog and die or I can get up and go outside and work. I chose to work and I’m finally starting to feel like we’re doing better.”
Janie continued, “There is so much to do and when things break down, when the well freezes, a water line breaks, a milker doesn’t show up and then you milk late – there is no point in losing energy getting angry. Jessie never did, and I didn’t understand that until now.
She sighed, “Right now, I’m waiting for spring. There is so much to do, like fixing fences that you just can’t do with all this cold and mud, but we’ll get there.”
Janie smiled once more. “Jessie was a cowboy. When we talked about life and death, Jessie once told me, we all go back to ashes. Just spread me out where the horses run, and I’ll be happy. The other day, I saw something that made me think of him again, and I thought, oh, I wish Jessie was here, and then I thought, no, I don’t. He’s in a better place, a warmer place. I know he’s happy and that’s all he wanted, for us to be happy. And that’s what we’re doing. Keeping the life that he loved, the life that we love, going here on the farm. And we’ll spread those ashes one day soon when we’re ready.”
