Lifelong Alaskan Gayle Janecek, 60, died peacefully at her Rainbow Lake home Sept. 3 from lung cancer.

A party in her honor will be held Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Palmer Depot, 610 South Valley Way in Palmer. Memories and laughter are welcome, tears discouraged but optional. Food, drink and tissues will be provided.

She was born in Anchorage June 30, 1949 to Victor and Jean Paal. She graduated from West Anchorage High in 1967. The following summer she married her love and best friend, Michael Janecek. She attended UAA where she earned certification as a medical laboratory technician, using Michael as a pin cushion while learning how to do blood draws.

Gayle worked for Valley Hospital and opened its first lab and X-ray facility in Wasilla. An eye for numbers and organization led her to a career change in the ‘80s, becoming the bookkeeper for Teeland’s Moonshine Shop. After earning a degree in computer accounting from UAA, she worked as the accountant for ABC Travel Time until her cancer prevented it.

A firm believer in the power of positive thinking, she preferred to “live to live, not live to die.” She called this “Free Rabbit Living,” a philosophy that brings smiles to her “team” of full-time caretakers, husband Michael, daughter Elle, and sister Joanie. Borrowing from words she heard early in her journey, Gayle lived with cancer until she didn’t.

Gayle loved learning and was a wonderful student of life. Her favorite pastime included a few good books and a long stay at their cabin in the woods near the Yentna River. Care for the environment was very important in her life, volunteering many hours in community cleanup and recycling efforts. She will be remembered for her warm smile, a mischievous twinkle in her eye, a fierce love for her family, and her quiet, reserved nature that epitomized the notion that still waters run deep.

Gayle is survived by husband Michael Janecek; daughter and son-in-law, Eleanor Janecek Delaney and Frank Delaney of Anchorage; mother, Jean Paal of Anchorage; sister Charlotte Paal; sister and brother-in-law, Joan Paal-Fridley and David Fridley of Big Lake; nieces, Meghan Fridley-Geiger of Chugiak, and Vanessa Fridley of Beavercreek, Ohio. In later years she was reunited with, and is survived by, her son given up through adoption, Don McKenzie. Through marriage she is survived by mother-in-law, Catherine Jolly; sisters-in-law Nancy Black and Catherine Call; nieces, Jackie Mouser, Amanda Black; and nephew Gary Lee Gipson, all of Soldotna.

Gayle believed that families consist of those with whom you share DNA or marriage, and those whom you choose throughout life. Too numerous to mention all she considered family, she wanted to recognize her “other mother” Renie Barnes of Anchorage, and friends Mike Butcher and Cindy Bettine of Big Lake, Patsy and Mike Turner of Palmer, and Richard and Mia Busha of Wasilla, Anders Wahlberg of Anchorage, and Joe and Gael Irvine of Wasilla as being family of choice.

Gayle’s “team” extends their heartfelt thanks to Dr. Larry Lawson of Midnight Sun Oncology for his caring, positive demeanor and skilled medical care, and to Sandy St. John for teaching us that while definitions of quality of life may change, none are less valued than another. Thank you both for making this an incredible journey.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Valley Community Recycling Solutions, PO Box 876464, Wasilla AK 99687.