Janice Lienau always knew what children liked best. When her grandsons were young, they would spend one day a week with her, and she would take them to Jordan Lake to hike, leap over logs and look at the flowers.
But it wasn't the romps through the woods that the four rough-and-tumble boys looked forward to most. It was the afternoon tea parties. "She could make anything fun," said Sharon Raymer of Apex, Lienau's daughter.
She never cared what anybody thought, Raymer said. "It didn't matter that she wore glittery things when they weren't fashionable or whether her diamonds were real or fake. As long as she had fun. Life was a joy for her. She enjoyed every day."
Lienau, of Apex, died in March at age 91, enjoying life until the end despite the mini strokes that sometimes left her in her own imaginary world.
Near Easter, Raymer heard singing coming from her mother's room. "She was in her wheelchair singing 'Jesus Loves Me' with imaginary children and encouraging them to sing with her. She was talking so sweetly to them."
Lienau was a child of the Depression. Her family lived in Eight Mile, Ala., a community eight miles outside of Mobile. She became accustomed to strangers asking for food in exchange for work. Though not wealthy themselves, her parents never turned away anyone in need.
Music filled their home, which was outfitted with a player piano and Eight Mile's only radio. Singing would draw neighbors to their front porch for an evening of fun and fellowship.
The lessons from her childhood carried into adulthood. When her first child was born in 1944, Lienau didn't worry about fancy cribs and bedding. Baby Mickey slept in a drawer.
"It was an idyllic '50s childhood," Raymer said. "She kept childhood in our lives. She introduced us to the sweeter things in life." Raymer said her mother never spent much time fretting over cleaning. Dirty dishes would still be there in the morning, but the fish might be biting that day. "She said the last thing they put on you when you die is dirt, so don't worry about it."
In 1958, Lienau's husband, Michael, moved his family from Alabama to Raleigh to pursue a business opportunity. Life in the larger city was a difficult adjustment for Lienau. She was working in her husband's office all day and had little opportunity to form friendships.
In time, she found her niche in church and community activities and discovered a new passion: painting. She learned by watching the television show "The Joy of Painting" in which Bob Ross instructed viewers while painting "happy little clouds." In no time, she had conquered acrylic daisies and strawberries and was leaving her mark everywhere. "If you stood still long enough, you would end up with one painted on you," Raymer said.
In retirement, she began painting in earnest. She took classes at local recreation centers and eventually settled on watercolors as a favorite medium.
The pupil became the instructor, and she set up a class in her home for three students: Raymer and her husband, David, and a friend from New Hill Baptist Church.
Every Tuesday afternoon, they would arrive to find little cards and watercolors set up around the dining room table. As they painted their cards, the friends would spend the hours sharing stories of life's joys and trials. At the end of the session, each would leave with a greeting card to send to someone. "Of course, we never sent one of them," Raymer said. "We couldn't bear to part with them."
Lienau painted cards for everyone. Her greeting cards are framed and hanging on walls of homes across the United States, her daughter said. "They were nothing wonderful, but because of who sent them, they were wonderful." Later, when she couldn't see to paint, she began fashioning curling ribbons to give out. No visitor was allowed to leave without a gift.
When she wasn't painting, she was busy with other crafts. She dabbled in everything from paper jewelry to macramé. "Whatever the 'it' craft was, that's what she did," Raymer said.
In later years, she learned from farmers how to pick corn and beans and how to can vegetables. "She started living again and reinventing herself. As circumstances change, you choose to grow or not. She grew and cultivated herself.
"She was not an academic. She didn't hold a high-profile job. She was just a wonderful person and everybody loved her."
Lienau is survived by her children, Mickey Lienau and his wife, Celia, of Myrtle Beach; Sharon Raymer and her husband, David, of Apex; five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Her grandson Carson Raymer, who died in 2005, was one of the first subjects of the "Life Stories" column.
