Jane Turk

Jane Turk (Née Dorko) age 78, Born August 29, 1941, in Cleveland, Ohio, died at home on May 17, 2020, in Parma, Ohio, from lung cancer. She graduated from West Tech in 1959 and is the daughter of John and Violet (Hardman) Dorko, both deceased. She was a June bride in 1961 when she married Daniel, her husband, of 59 years. Jane is survived by her husband Daniel, her children: Christine of Cleveland, Daniel Jr. of Bay St Louis, Mississippi, David (Dawn) of Findlay, and Jeffrey (Kimberly) of Alma, Michigan; brother John Dorko of Medina; nine grandchildren Danielle, Ryan, Laura, Hunter, Justin, Brittany, Jessica, Lilianna and Graeyden; and nine great-grandchildren Anela, Shogun, Takara, Ronin, Knox, Kane, Michael, Emily, and Oliver.

Private visitation and service will be held Thursday, May 28, 2020. Those who wish may make donations in her name to Holy Family Hospice, 6707 State Road, Parma, Ohio 44134.

Jane was a 1959 graduate of West Tech. She and Dan were involved in gymnastics, and although they came from different high schools on opposite sides of town, they met when Dan joined the Cleveland Swiss Turners gymnastics club on Cleveland’s west side, where Jane was a member. In addition to gymnastics, Jane also participated in the club’s traditional Swiss dance group that gave performances during festivals and gymnastic competitions from Sugarcreek, Ohio, to Monroe, Wisconsin. After they married, when asked how they met, they would reply, “We met on the parallel bars.”

Over the years, Jane confronted and withstood several health challenges. During the first eleven years of marriage, Jane gave birth to her four children while suffering from chronic undiagnosed Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, SLE, which afterward required medications for the rest of her life. A few short years later, she underwent brain surgery to repair a ruptured aneurysm. In the early nineties, she fought and won a year-long battle with colon cancer, which left her with lingering intestinal problems, and then, rheumatoid arthritis which remained a constant companion. In recent years she was diagnosed with COPD, and only very recently, the lung cancer that ultimately claimed her life.

Throughout her life, she soldiered on, a fighter, never giving in, bearing all the typical burdens of raising a family and creating a loving home. She took pride in her role as a housewife: from maintaining a meticulously clean home, having homemade pies and cakes ready for when the children returned from school, and always, an on-time family dinner. She was raised in a relatively low-income family and was naturally thrifty throughout her life: She mourned the closing of Kmart and eagerly awaited the opening of a new Meijer store in its place. She was a confidant to friends and others and could listen and respond in ways that often helped them see their problems in a different light. She loved her grandchildren and worried about the kind of people they would become in a rapidly changing world that was increasingly difficult to comprehend.

She enjoyed and always looked forward to getting together with her children and grandchildren during holidays and other events and seeing how their families were growing. In later years she enjoyed pictures and videos of them as well as those of other relatives we don’t often get to see using Facebook on her iPad. Her family and friends will all miss her, and I, her husband, will miss her most of all.