Janette Louise Valeno

Janette Louise Valeno “Jan” left our world on January 29, 2024 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after a long battle with cancer. She was 68 years old. Janette was a graduate of Widener Memorial College in Philadelphia in 1975. Jemez Pueblo was her beloved home the last 20 years. She loved the stark beauty of the dry highlands and the expanding sky. Her ashes will be released into the wind there at a future time, privately.  Janette was well loved and well known. A writer since she could hold a pencil and a storyteller before then; she penned many works over the course of her life. She wrote novels, short stories and kept journals. She was best known for her poetry. Janette wrote volumes of poetry and books on different subjects, some published and others unpublished. Writing was her passion and her greatest work. Her talent was inspiring to all who knew her. Born with cerebral palsy she struggled her whole life. This never stopped her from a fully expressed life through the discipline of her work. Her final work, a book about cancer, is to be published in the future, a wonderful epitaph to her final life’s challenge. Even in death, her only goal was to help others.  Janette did have a talent for helping others, a telling gift in one who was so burdened by her body’s inadequacies. Always at the ready to lift up another soul and help them face anything with a fresh perspective and renewed thinking…a healer in mind, body, and spirit. A teacher to anyone who had the privilege of hearing her speak. Her work will live on in her writings making a delicate and beautiful mark upon this world.  Janette is preceded in death by her parents, Louis (Lou) Andre’ Valeno & Earlene (Lee) Janette Valeno, and her twin sister, Mary Earlene Valeno. Our beloved Eldest sister is survived by Andrea Valeno (Randy), and her sons, William Elliott and Louis Elliott. Sandra Valeno Davis, (Butch). Mark Valeno, (Kelly), and son Michael Valeno, and daughter Maranda Valeno. David Valeno, (Michelle), and daughter Aleigha Valeno

Janette wouldn’t have wanted flowers or donations. She would say “Pay it forward in kindness, tolerance, and love” We shall miss her always.