JANICE CORBIN

by Dr. Phil Aaron

 Janice Corbin touched many lives in her nursing career: first as she worked for 16 years with Dr. Oris and Carolyn Jones and many others at the old Adair Memorial Hospital. Then as she worked almost 30 years in my office.  

 She was so proud of herself as she was a breast cancer survivor (surgery, radiation and chemotherapy) only to find out about a week after this treatment was over that the cancer had spread to her brain.

 I have always thought that Jan had a photographic memory. For she could remember every medicine and dose of each patient we treated. So much so that I find myself having to look doses up in her absence. She was punctual and dependable (during our stretch never missing a day in over 10 years).

 My own ego occasionally caused me to think that many of our patients had come to our offices because of my care. As the years went by I realized that a large number of these patients had come because of Jan, her caring ways, her thoughtfulness and thoroughness.

 She amazed me how she used her encyclopedic memory to inform me how this patient was related to another patient, whose son was married to another patient's niece, etc.

 Several patients loved to fuss with her: e.g. Lawerence Page (father) and Raymond Paige (son) from Campbellsville. (They spelled their last name differently) were two black men who loved her dearly. Lawerence had diabetes and Jan filled out forms so insurance would pay for his diabetic shoes. Raymond and Jan fussed repeatedly because she would not fill out forms for him.

 And Helen and Gene Elmore from Casey County. Helen was a lung cancer survivor who talked with Jan about her family (children and grandchildren) and about their struggles for cancer cures. Jan wasn't superficial. She spent considerable time with our patients and was most attentive to their needs.

 Margaret and Johnny Popplewell from Russell County were other favorites of hers. Johnny, who had an insulin pump, was a voracious reader of Western paperbacks. Often he would read a whole book in our waiting room. They always had merchandise at the 127 sale; Jan and Johnny would fuss over anything and everything. Yet when she became sick no one was more concerned than Johnny.

 Jan Corbin is gone but not forgotten.

 Sickness and tragedy sometimes have a way of bringing friends and family together. The list was long of patients and friends who volunteered to sit with Jan at her home. Then when she went into a coma and had to be hospitalized, these friends and others kept us busy keeping them updated on her condition.

 Her family was there for her to the end. Daughter Rita Neat and Jeff; son Steve and Aleina; Greg and Melissa, and Allen and Coco. They will miss her as will many in our extended community.