Janet Patricia (Muth) Brown, 54, of Old Saybrook, died Sept. 4 surrounded by her family. Janet was born Feb. 21, 1959 in South Amboy, New Jersey to Gordon Muth and the late Lois Patricia Muth. She moved to upstate New York as a teenager, where she met and fell in love with her best friend, high school sweetheart, and future husband of 31 years, Charles Curtis Brown. After graduating from Holland Patent High School, Janet attended the State University of New York at Geneseo and eventually settled in Old Saybrook where she and Charlie raised their three children.

Janet’s love of children and great creativity inspired her career as a pre-school teacher, most recently at the Community Cooperative Nursery School in Old Saybrook. She was also extremely involved in her community for many years as a Girl Scout leader, a volunteer at Ray of Light Farm, and an active member and Sunday school teacher at St. Paul Lutheran Church. However, her greatest passion and joy was as a loving mother to her three children. Since she was a little girl she dreamed of being a mother, and it was clear to all who loved her that this was her life’s calling. She will be dearly missed by her children, who were blessed to have the “best mom in the whole wide world”.

Janet loved animals, the Jersey shore, the Red Sox, and Cedar Lake. Her love of life and loud laughter will resonate with her loved ones.

Janet lived for more than 6 and a half years with stage IV lung cancer, defying odds and inspiring all who knew her. Janet became a passionate advocate for lung cancer research, and wanted to spread the word that anyone can get lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death, even a never-smoker such as herself.

Her family extends their gratitude to the doctors, nurses, and staff at Smilow Cancer Center, and all those who helped in her care.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by her three children, Kristen, Lauren, and Michael Brown; her father Gordon Muth; her sisters Karen Muth and Diane Ferrisi and their families; her brother David Muth; her best friend Una Walker; an honorary grandchild, Shea, “who she loves 27”; and countless other friends and family.

Friends and relatives are welcome to join the family for a memorial service Saturday, Sept. 14 at 11 a.m. in St. Paul Lutheran Church, 56 Great Hammock Road, Old Saybrook. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in memory of Janet to either Ray of Light Farm- Keep the Light Shining Campaign, 232 Town Street, East Haddam, CT  06423 or www.rayoflightfarm.org or to the Thoracic Oncology Translational Research Fund at Yale-New Haven Hospital (make checks payable to Yale-New Haven Hospital Office of Development), P.O. Box 1849, New Haven, CT  06508. Please include the fund name in the memo section of the check. The Robinson, Wright, and Weymer Funeral Home, Centerbrook, is in charge of arrangements.