Obituary of Janet Leslie Willis
The Willis family is deeply saddened to report that our big sister Janet Willis passed away peacefully, early in the morning of August 15th, 2026, at her home in Waterloo. After a long fight with Alzheimer's that took most of her from us, she is finally free and 'home'.
She died surrounded by the amazing and kind staff at Parents for Community Living-KW Stanwood home. We are eternally grateful for the loving and compassionate support PCL-KW provided Janet for almost 30 years. A wonderful organization staffed by kind and caring people. We cannot imagine how her life might have gone without them and our gratitude to PCL-KW will last forever. Many staff who cared for Janet over the years grew to love Janet (it was hard not to!) and they also grieve her loss. We appreciate this beyond words, and we grieve Janet's passing alongside them. Janet loved her life at Stanwood and would often be very eager to get back there each time we took her out for a trip somewhere.
Janet was born in Brantford Ontario, and then lived in Kitchener-Waterloo for the rest of her life, the last 29 years at the Stanwood PCL home in Waterloo. Beloved daughter of the late Audrey Willis (2016) and the late James Willis (1992), cherished sister to Andrew Willis (Lisa) and Rob Willis (Tracey) and much loved Aunt to Sam, Daisy and Lily.
We will miss her terribly but she leaves us with a lifetime of wonderful memories and classic Janetisms. Many of those 'isms' came about because she often didn't fully grasp the context of the English language, yet she had a knack of coming up with her own descriptions or interpretations of words or expressions that were always somehow better than their original meaning. We continue to use many of them today, which makes us "two sames" with Janet in that regard. Among the many other great memories are how funny and silly she was, her elephant-like memory (before Alzheimer's did its thing) and her ability to recall the smallest details of things we'd all long forgotten, her love of all things Star Trek, her fondness for a good lobster feed, her spending countless hours drawing or colouring, her tendency to be a bit of a night owl and party animal in her younger years, and, her love of music (especially her adoration for Lady Gaga). Janet got to see Lady Gaga in concert at least twice in her life and loved every second of it. We are so glad she got to do that. We love you Big Sis, and will miss you always.
Janet will be interred beside her mom and dad at Parkview Cemetery on August 28th in a private family service. A celebration of her life will be hosted by PCL-KW Stanwood staff in September to allow those who most comprised her world in recent years to celebrate and remember her for the wonderful gift she was to all of us.
We kindly ask that in lieu of flowers or cards, expressions of sympathy occur via donations to Parents for Community Living-KW (https://pclkw.org/donate/).