Community activist Jan Freedman remembered for “wonderful spirit”

April 30, 2020 · 0 Comments

Jan Freedman, a long-time community leader and volunteer with numerous local organizations, is being remembered for her “wonderful spirit.”

Ms. Freedman, affectionately known as “Jan the Jam Lady” for her tireless work at the Aurora Farmers’ Market and the renowned jams and jellies that came out of Jan’s Country Pantry, died of heart failure Sunday, April 26, at the age of 74.

Ms. Freedman served for many years in leadership positions with the Aurora Farmers’ Market, the Aurora Seniors’ Centre, and the Aurora Public Library Board, and was a passionate contributor to Aurora’s arts and culture community.

“This is a big loss to the community,” said Councillor Wendy Gaertner, a long-time friend of Ms. Freedman. “She had a lot of health challenges and handled them with such grace and continued being such a productive member of the Aurora community through the work of the Seniors’ Centre and Farmers’ Market, and also beloved as ‘Jan the Jam Lady’. I have such a great respect for her spirit because I think it was her spirit that kept her going. She meant a lot to a lot of people in the community.”

A native of Montreal, Ms. Freedman told The Auroran in 2010 her volunteer and leadership work at the Farmers’ Market gave her a “new and wonderful dimension to her life.”

“I am all about my Farmers’ Market,” she said at the time. “Otherwise, I don’t know what I would be doing. Getting ready for the Market, being at the Market, forces me to stretch myself when I’m not sure what I would do otherwise.”

Having waged her first battle with cancer aged just 13, the experience made her want to live every day to the fullest.

“I can’t afford to let an opportunity or great day go by and not do anything about it,” she said. “I’m a scrapper. I didn’t want to be sick [at 13]; I wanted to get home, to be with my friends, my bike, and my dog. Doctors credited that to helping me pull through.”

Upon her recovery, Ms. Freedman studied at the University of British Columbia before transferring to Ottawa’s Carleton University to study sociology. From there, she completed her masters through the London School of Economics and York University.

Following school, she held down many jobs in provincial and municipal government, but a combination of recurring illness and frustration with inevitable red tape prevented her from “really establishing a career.”

She was able to stay home and take care of her daughter, Laura, and her experiences in motherhood – both hers and looking back on her childhood with her own mother – that set her on the path to preserving nature’s bounty.

“In a way, I’ve done a lot of things I wish my mother had done but didn’t,” she said. “She worked, she wasn’t home when I got home from school and I hated that. I wanted to be home for Laura. You only get one crack at being a parent and we were fortunate at that point that I was financially able to do that.”

She first began experimenting with preserves in her mid-20s, beginning with wild strawberries. A passion flourished and, once settled in North York, she made extensive use of her kitchen garden.

She first became involved with the Farmers’ Market in 2006 where she first sold just a couple of dozen jars from a corner of another vendor’s booth.

“I made $40 that day and I was ecstatic,” she recalled. “It just grew from there and then I moved over and developed my own space.”

Her space grew along with the Aurora Farmers’ Market and her Jan’s Country Pantry tent was a popular destination for hundreds each Saturday.

As her involvement with the Aurora Farmers’ Market grew, so too did her involvement at the Aurora Seniors’ Centre, rising from an everyday member to an integral member of their leadership team, eventually assuming the role of Vice President of the Aurora Seniors’ Association and even treading the boards as an actress with their Senior Stars program.

A highlight of Jan’s Country Pantry each fall was the creation of a specially-themed, sometimes exotic creation, to coincide with the Aurora Public Library’s OneBookOneAurora campaign, as well as soups which were ladled out for Culture Days each September.

“Jan touched so many of us with her passion for life and for her many contributions to our community,” said Reccia Mandelcorn of the Aurora Public Library. “I had the privilege to work with her on various cultural initiatives and to have benefited from her governance on the Aurora Public Library Board. I will miss our conversations about theatre, music and fashion. I will miss the limited edition jam she created annually as part of the Library’s OneBookOneAurora community initiative. And I will very much miss my dear friend.”

Ms. Freedman is survived by her husband of 42 years, Frank Condlln, and her daughter Laura Condlln (Jane Gooderham).

By Brock Weir