| Graduation Year | Class of 1973 |
| Date of Passing | May 26, 2021 |
| About | George Albert Janske was born on October 30, 1954 to Alfred Charles Janske and Maria de Jesus Janske on Pill Hill. He died on May 26th, 2021 at home in Hayward, but was a former resident of Oakland. I don’t know what kind of baby George was when young. Did he cry a lot as some do, or was he a quiet type? Was he trouble for his parents? George was more like his father Alfred than his mother Maria. A diagnosis was enlisted with the aid of the Regional Centers in 1995. George was autistic. George, and the rest of us, didn’t know he was autistic. He had Asperger’s. This was only known after both his parents were dead. This explained a great about his behavior and his likes and dislikes. Surprisingly his diagnosis was that he was sufficiently capable of taking care of himself even if his intelligence was given as 90 IQ points. I became his full-time caregiver. George was held back in kindergarten in May 1960. He repeated kindergarten with Mrs. Post. He graduated Glenview elementary school (May 1967), McChesney Junior High (1969), and then Oakland High School when he finished in 1973. At first, he didn’t play with the other children on the playground due to his heart condition which was causing his oxygenated blood to mixed with his unoxygenated blood. He was thin and weak. He could run but not far. In 1963, at the age of nine years, George underwent open heart surgery to fix his congenital heart problem at Stanford Hospital. He was under the care of Doctor Norman E. Shumway, one of the pre-eminent heart surgeons of the 20th century. George was made whole. For many years he had to return and be checked by the doctors. Mama and George would go by public transportation, luckily it included taking a train to hospital. At Stanford, they encouraged him to eat, and he did. George loved to eat and drink a daily libation. He loved craft beers and bought many growlers. When we went wine tasting he would buy a bottle or two. Mama taught George how to cook, do laundry, fold his clothes, clean dishes, pay bills and many other household chores. She paid for a reading teacher, Mrs. Tuck, who spent years teaching George reading. Later, every day he would buy the San Francisco Chronicle. George was happy even though he wasn’t invited to other children’s birthday parties. I don’t remember George having a birthday party with friends at home. He didn’t have friends. There wasn’t a single soul who came to see George at home during his whole schooling. And that was true till the end. My friends were his friends and it drove me crazy sometimes because I couldn’t have a separate, pure relationship without George. He was always there. I was his best friend. I guess he was too different to be a friend. This lack of school chums didn’t seem to bother him. He really didn’t think or feel that he was lonely; ever. This was a blessing. The need to connect with another human is a strong drive that can torture us and make loneliness unbearable. He was not that way. He had a big family on our mother’s side who were hospitable and gregarious. Our relatives lived in San Francisco where only Spanish was spoken. The doyenne was Ernestina Dimas, a grand aunt of our mother. We would visit our Aunt Lucy Januszewski Kline on Sundays in Alameda. In Minnesota we did genealogical research into our father’s, and his parent’s lives. He loved Finding Your Roots with Dr. Henry Louis Gates. After his diagnosis, it took several years for me to realize that our father was autistic too. They were a bit different in their showing, but it was there. The autism made it so hard to understand George and our father. Both couldn’t articulate their feelings, nor could he explain what he was going through. He didn’t have the language, nor the understanding of self. He could be so stubborn and so easy going. George did have some very beneficial qualities that came forward in 1996. He had a better humor, he got jokes and he could laugh more deeply because he seemed to get the point. He loved the Three Stooges. His rigid schedule became looser, which was a blessing to me. An autistic person doesn’t have a list of things to do, he has a schedule of when things are to be done. George awoke early and had coffee ready to drink at 5 am. I didn’t, but had to arise anyway. He ate at noon, and at 5 pm. At 2 in the afternoon, he watched Jerry Springer and laughed at the craziness of others. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday he took a shower at 6 pm. The scheduling reinforcement came from television and from holidays. His schedule became my schedule. We went on vacation from Oakland to Little Falls, Minnesota in 1996 and 1998. I drove 10,000 miles each time. We took ten days to arrive and ten days to return with each time using a different route to see the beautiful U.S. We stayed in Minnesota for a month, each time, working on our father’s genealogy. George adapted to many novel situations nicely. George enjoyed each vacation immensely and appreciated all the history along the way. We incorporated into our cross-county trek many older train stations and seeing the locomotives and their shops. George didn’t carry on an argument or a grudge the next day. The slate was wiped clean each night. Each of us has had a partner who couldn’t drop a point the next day and we know what a headache that can be! George had a reset every night; clean slate next day. I was very grateful for this quality. George was kind to animals; all animals except pigeons. In Glenview when walking our dogs, he would meet other owners, and he would talk to them, but he wouldn’t remember their names, only the dog’s name. He waved at the dogs. He would talk to each dog. People would recognize our dogs when I walked them and would ask about the fellow who was walking them before. I would introduce myself and tell them about my brother George. We had several dogs that he loved; Coffee, Orpheus and Boston Charlie, during this time. As each of the dogs passed away, we buried them in our backyard on Park Blvd. We lived in Glenview for 52 years in the house that our parents bought in 1958. We lost it in a foreclosure ten years ago. In that decade George went through many trials and tribulations. We were both hit by lightning (ground conduction current) on Mount Diablo on Friday the 13th April 2012 while homeless. This ground conduction current travels through the cardiovascular and/or nervous systems. Who knows how much this further damaged his weakened heart? Several years later, our three beautiful dogs, Nellie, Mindy and Spike, passed away and were cremated. They were kept near George, who would dream about them once in a while. He was happy to see them again. With the help of East Bay Innovations, we found senior housing in Hayward. Center For Elders Independence gave George a wonderful place with games, people, and top-notch medical care. George had a real passion for Bingo. Without this help George would have died in some homeless camp. He lived another 3 years; happy, safe and with a good life. George will be interred with his parents at St. Mary’s Cemetery, Oakland. No date has been set. George didn’t receive any advanced degrees, George didn’t receive accolades from his fellow creatures for becoming a tycoon, George didn’t solve any world problems, George didn’t travel the world over, George served in no military, George fought in no wars, George didn’t accomplish anything but a good, wonderful life. He was a nobody; one of the countless billions who have lived. Oh, poor George. He lived through two heart attacks. He didn’t survive his third. A fond farewell, brother. Godspeed. |
