A professional nurse who found joy in family, friends
WAKEFIELD — Janis P. Reed (Dydzulis/Malone), known as Didi to all, passed away peacefully on October 23 at home after a fierce battle with cancer.
Janis was born in Somerville to Stanley and Lena Dydzulis. She met the love of her life, Richard Malone, married and had 3 daughters settling first in Reading and then in Wakefield. She found great joy in her career as a nurse but even more joy in her family.
Through the years, Janis took great pleasure in watching her family grow. Nothing made her happier than everyone coming to her beach house on Long Beach in Rockport known as her happy place. She loved Christmas and Cookie Day will never be the same. She was a stranger to no one and found great successes, joys and challenges of those around her. She taught us all the value of being there for the people you love as she was authentically and wholeheartedly there for those in her life. She was the first one to help anyone —family, friend or stranger. She had friends from all over and from every part of her life that loved her and supported her. She was grateful for all of you.
It would be wrong to say Janis lost her battle with cancer because she never stopped fighting. No matter how sick she was, she was always determined when anyone else would have broken. Janis stayed strong; through her we knew what perseverance and resilience truly looked like. There was no quit in her. Just because she is no longer here, it does not mean she lost her fight.
Janis was pre-deceased by her parents, Stanley and Lena Dydzulis, her first husband Richard Malone, and her second husband Robert Reed. She is survived by her 3 daughters, Jennifer, Marianne, and Meghan, and her 3 grandchildren Richard, Chloe, and Cassidy. She is also survived by her brother Stanley Dydzulis and his wife Carolyn, her sister-in-law Joanne Redick and her husband Theodore. Pre-deceased by her sister-in-law Edna McKenna and her husband Walter. She is also survived by many nieces, nephews, extended family and her friends that became family.
A Funeral Mass will be celebrated in St. Florence Church, 47 Butler Ave., Wakefield on Wednesday October 26 at 10:30 a.m. Visitation for relatives and friends will be held at the McDonald Funeral Home, 19 Yale Ave., Wakefield on Tuesday October 25 from 4-7 p.m.
A private interment will be held at a later day.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Globe Center at globesanta.org or Boston Globe Foundation c/o Globe Santa, PO Box 491 Medford MA 02155.