HAIKU FOR MY JANNI JU

About the Book

This book of Haiku poems of and about my beautiful daughter, Jan Barbara Vusich, who was killed on PCH near Temescal Canyon in Pacific Palisades on January 2, 2000 is dedicated to her cherished memory. My hope is that readers will relate to my personal feelings and coming to grips with the loss of my daughter and best friend at 28 in such a sudden and untimely way. No one is prepared to lose a child before you. From my experience, it is the worst nightmare that can happen to a parent. Hopefully, this book can be a healing process for those of you who can relate to this loss and keep the undying memory alive for the rest of your lives. I often reflect on the simple things we did together as mother and daughter and those are the most meaningful.

About the Author

My beautiful daughter, Jan Barbara Michelle Vusich was killed on January 2, 2000 on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California in an automobile accident. Disaster struck at 1:15 PM on a bright "picture perfect" beach day. The accident was not her fault and the man who caused it left the scent with not a scratch on him, his passengers nor his vehicle. I had spoken to my daughter from her cell phone only a half hour before she died. She was at Venice Beach picking out some great black and white photographs to frame for her newly painted bedroom. She was 28. In many ways my life ended ten years ago. Jan was not only my daughter, but my best friend in every way. There was nothing too personal or shocking to share. I had basically raised her by myself until she was eight years old; many of those years in a woodsy cabin-condo two blocks from the beach in Malibu. We had a very special bond. From a very young age she was talked to intelligently and her opinion on most matters was considered if not always followed. She was wise and very spiritual beyond her young years. At six she remarked one day while sitting by the brook that ran in front of our small place that we would have to die together or she would have to dir first as she couldn't bear the world without me in it. Did she have a premonition at such an early age? I was born in New York City the younger daughter of orchestra leader, Jan Savitt and his model/singer wife, Barbara Stillwell Savitt. We lived a most privileged life on the upper East side of Manhattan across from Central Park; having Frank Sinatra and his family as very close friends. We moved to Toluca Lake, California when I was four, following the Sinatra clan out to the West Coast. My father died at 39 of a cerebral hemorrhage a year after our family moved to Toluca Lake. My mother was left a widow with two young daughters at 28. She remarried two years later and had a son with my actor stepfather, Seve Brodie. We stayed in the house in Toluca Lake and were raised with a whole host of celebrity families including Bob Hope, Jonathan Winters, Dana Andrews and Ann Blythe counting their children as our best friends. Mom stayed in the same house there for almost fifty years until her untimely death in 1995. I am married to Joel Douglas who is Kirk Douglas' son and Michael's younger brother. We currently live in Palm Springs, California with our two bichon frises. My newly married daughter, Marisa, now 28, is pregnant and we eagerly await the birth of her baby boy in early November, 2010. There isn't a day that goes by in which I do not think of my beautiful, wonderful, talented, smart and very loving first daughter, Jan, and what she contributed to make this world a much better place during her short lifetime. She was the Director of Marketing at Sanford/Pillsbury Productions in Santa Monica, California. More than 600 people came to Jan's funeral Mass and later recounted her myriad kind, thoughtful, unselfish, unspoken deeds which speaks for itself.