Janet Wasson Robinson

Beloved wife, mother, grandmother, gardener, neighbor and friend Janet Robinson, age 85, of Valdosta, Ga., had dinner plans this Valentine’s Day. So on Feb. 14, 2018, she settled into the chair her late husband, Robbie, had used in the last days of his life and waited for him to pick her up for a long-awaited date.

This year’s Valentine’s Day coincided, too, with Ash Wednesday, a time to be reminded that from dust we come and to dust we will return. Never one to slight a holiday — she kept a Christmas tree up year round, bedecked, of course, with seashells over the summer — Mrs. Robinson reminded those who loved her of that liturgical truth in a most poignant way: On Feb. 14, 2018, to make that celestial dinner date, she returned to dust, to the dirt that nurtured the flowers she so cherished, to ashes that will rest beside those of her beloved Robbie.

Janet Clarice Wasson Robinson was born April 13, 1932, in Statesville, N.C., where she grew up, went to school and met her husband, whom she married in 1954 after her whirlwind tour of art school in Tennessee. Maj. Aubrey “Robbie” Monroe Robinson Jr.’s service in the Air Force led the happy couple to stints at bases in Texas, Florida, Massachusetts and — as anyone who knew Mrs. Robinson was surely aware — France.

Along the way came two children and many happy memories. After living overseas, the family settled in Valdosta, where Mrs. Robinson thrived as a gifted flower arranger and a patron of the arts. For several years, she directed the Valdosta Arts Commission, and she was an officer of the Georgia State and Valdosta garden clubs. Some of her happiest memories were at The Crescent, where she took great pleasure in shocking flower show judges with avant-garde arrangements that imbued the oddest things — a plunger, a pink flamingo, a plastic python — with beauty and verve. Of particular note was the arrangement of all her blue ribbons.

Mrs. Robinson is preceded in death by her husband, who died in 2011, as well as her son, Aubrey “Robin” Monroe Robinson III, who died in 1992. She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Patti and Andy Goins, of Weddington, N.C.; grandsons Drew Goins of Washington, D.C., and Zach Goins of Chapel Hill, N.C.; the families of nephew Joe Robinson of Atlanta, Ga., niece Lenora Wasson Sparks of High Point, N.C., and Kim Robinson Burgess of Apex, N.C.; and one Tiger Lily, a most spoiled kitty.

A celebration of life will be held 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at The Crescent. In lieu of flowers, please donate to The Garden Center, P.O. Box 2423, Valdosta, Ga., 31604, that they may till the dirt and the dust, and from it coax beauty, a reminder that even in loss, somehow love — that of family, of friends, of a Valentine — grows perennial. Condolences to the family may be conveyed online at www.mclanecares.com Carson McLane.