Janice Edwards Siler

Janice Edwards Siler died December 27, 2025, at age 91, in her home in Asheville, North Carolina, surrounded and supported by people who loved her.

Janice was born November 13, 1934, in Wilmington, North Carolina, to Lee Etta and Walton Edwards. They nourished her and her younger brother Dale in the ways of love, connection, family, friendship, faith, work, generosity, and joy, and these became her bones, her heart, her eyes, hands, and voice. She nourished her own family and friendships with them. With intuition, creativity, and love, she shaped homes and other places, indoor and out, into spaces of hospitality, beauty, and rest.

Janice loved music. At age twelve, she became church pianist at Gibson Avenue Baptist Church in Wilmington, and she played, sang, and listened to music throughout her life. She loved the ocean. Her father helped her and her husband Mahan build a house at Surf City, North Carolina, a place they called Rest and Be Thankful that they shared generously with others. She loved learning. She was the first in her extended family to go to college (Mars Hill, Wake Forest), a testament to her grit and her parents’ sacrificial love. She especially loved learning about body, mind, and spirit. She completed a masters in marriage and family therapy, worked for many years as a counselor, and served a term as president of the Winston-Salem (NC) Mental Health Association. She loved friends. Her twin sister Joyce died at birth, and Janice cherished her many sister-friends (Barbara, Marty, Judy, Judith, Mary Lou, Cannan, and surely others). She loved gardens, gardening, birds, jokes, and chocolate.

Above all, Janice loved family. She was married to Mahan for sixty-eight years. Theirs was a marriage of affection, respect, shared work, play, and complementary gifts. She loved her four children (Jeanine, Marshall, Julia, and Mark), their spouses (the out-laws Russell, Lynne, Michelle, Harry, and Kiran), and dozens more lovingly though not legally adopted children (including May, Nancy, Lynn, Ben, and Janice). She loved her six “official” grandchildren (Jessica, Hannah, Peyton, Walton, Joy, and Leigh), many unofficial grandchildren  (including Ella, Jordan, Natalie, Sorin, Alyssa, Harrison, and Saige), and two great-grandchildren (Oliver and Riley). They all called her Gaia.

Very early in life, Janice learned to trust others, trust herself, and trust life itself, and she lived from trust the whole way through. In her heart-centered, open-hearted living, she helped others trust life and love. In her dying, she trusted herself to the love all around her.

She will be remembered, celebrated, and loved at a memorial service on Saturday, January 3, 10 am, at Land of the Sky United Church of Christ, 15 Overbrook Place, Asheville NC.

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