Jan Ludwig

Janice Santos Ludwig died peacefully at 1:11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, at the age of 85. After living with Alzheimer's disease for over twenty years-her final four spent at John Clarke Nursing Home in Middletown RI-she was gently ushered into the next life surrounded by loving harmonies sung by her daughters and grandchildren. 

Born May 21, 1940, in Newport RI, to the late Laura (Hagan) and Alfred J. Santos, Jan attended Mumford School and Rogers High School where she was on the cheerleading squad and the basketball team and was voted classmate with "most class spirit". After graduating as Vice President of the class of 1957, she earned her RN degree at Massachusetts General Hospital (1960) and began a lifelong career in family health.  

Jan first served as a nurse in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1963, as the newlywed Mrs. Peter Ludwig, then continued her work in Canaan, Vermont as a visiting nurse with the Orleans Northern Essex Home Health Agency, and later became the first school nurse in Canaan. She advanced her training by earning her Nurse Practitioner degree from Northeastern University in 1981 where she was honored with the Minette Cracknell Award for exemplifying "the highest standards of competence in and dedication to the care of others" - a defining achievement that launched the next chapter of her distinguished nursing career. Through a federal HURA grant, she opened and operated her own primary care clinic in Canaan before relocating to Maine in 1983 where she went on to serve for over two decades at Dr. Charlie Burger's family practice in Bangor, Maine. After retiring from primary care practice in 2002, Jan returned to Newport, Rhode Island and served as student health nurse at Salve Regina University until 2008. That year, she quietly self-diagnosed the early signs of Alzheimer's, confiding only in her mother and husband. Undeterred, Jan continued to embrace purpose and joy - volunteering with Newport In Bloom and at Newport Hospital, cherishing time with her grandchildren and Newport community, delighting in time on the beach, and treasuring laughter and friendship with her beloved Joy Luck Club. 

Jan's many professional accomplishments shine in bright counterpoint to her late-life decline. While serving on the Canaan School Board for several years, she received funds and community support to launch the town's first pre-school and kindergarten, the region's first Girl Scout Troop, and an official Red Cross swim lesson program at Wallace Pond, spending several years championing child development and teaching young people survival and life skills. While still an RN, she was instrumental in the success of a regional clinic associated with the hospital in Colebrook, NH, providing the community with immunizations, wellness visits and urgent care. Through the winters she served on the Ski Patrol at the Wilderness Ski Resort. She started a local volleyball league, spearheaded roadside trash pickup events for Vermont Green-Up Days, and enjoyed family back-country ski outings with hotdogs in her pack to cook on sticks over an open fire in the snow for lunch. She was a skilled seamstress, expanding wardrobes for herself and her children. She had an oversized vegetable garden, harvesting peas, corn, beans and rhubarb - homegrown staples that sustained her family through Vermont's long, cold winters. She installed a weather station in her backyard and reported data to the National Weather Service, confirming much to her chagrin that Canaan received the fewest hours of sunshine in the state. When her children reached middle school, Jan joined four fellow RNs in making weekly seven-hour trips to Boston for nine months to become one of the nation's first Nurse Practitioners. Later, in Bangor, she was appointed president of the board of the newly founded Mabel Wadsworth Women's Health Center and worked tirelessly to plan and implement the direction of the organization - still one of only a few independent, feminist reproductive rights clinics in the country. Her many years at Dr. Burger's office were the pinnacle of her career, where "Dr. Jan" became known as one of Maine's most respected and beloved health practitioners.  

Jan's life was punctuated with hard traumas. In 1970, the two-story house she and husband Pete built together in Canaan was struck by lightning the week they were to move in with their three small children; the fire consumed all their possessions and forced them to rebuild. In 1985, her 16-year-old son, Bradley Walden Ludwig, died of meningococcemia, an aggressive bacteria which took his life in less than 24 hours, devastating her emotionally and testing her faith. In 2005, antagonistic neighbors claimed adverse possession of Jan's Middletown RI property which resulted in a protracted legal battle, stymying plans for her retirement home and draining both coffers and spirit (worth noting that Jan prevailed, successfully defending her rightful ownership). These and other lesser tolls quite likely impacted her cognition over time, perhaps increasing her susceptibility to the disease which held her captive in the long final chapter of her life. 

Jan's greatest love was Pete, husband of 62 years and steady support "in sickness and in health". Her daughters Laura Ludwig and Heidi (Ludwig) Heilman; their husbands, Stormy Mayo and Brad Heilman; and grandchildren, Tess, Jonatha and Wyeth Heilman - and hundreds of friends and family members - will remember Jan for her enthusiasm for humanity, her compassion and medical care skills, and her immutable joy, ever present even after Alzheimer's had robbed her of all else. 

Along with her husband, daughters and grandchildren, Jan is survived by her brother, Alfred J. Santos Jr. and wife Monica of Newport, her nieces Charlotta (Santos) Runci and Camilla Santos of Providence, brothers-in-law John Duval Ludwig of Newport and Sky Ludwig and wife Audrey Nichols of Vinalhaven, ME; sisters-in-law Katherine Taggart and husband Dan of Pittston, ME, Susan Suchar and husband Wiford Shultz of China, ME and Deborah Ludwig and husband Gunner Wood of Freedom, ME; her nieces Cynthia Gottlieb of Hamburg, Germany, Sarah White of Dudley, MA, Tracy Sommers of Great Diamond Island, ME, Carrie Suchar of Phippsburg, ME, Deborah Suchar of Damariscotta, ME, Gretchen Ludwig of Seattle, WA, Samantha Ludwig of Saratoga, NY; and nephews Scott Ludwig of Hudson, ME and Adam Ludwig of Seattle, Washington. 

A celebratory gathering will be held on Friday, August 1, 4-6pm at Memorial Funeral Home at 375 Broadway in Newport RI; all are invited to share Jan stories at 5pm. A Catholic service will be held on Saturday, August 2, 10am at Jesus Savior Church at 509 Broadway in Newport, followed by interment in the Santos family plot at St. Columba's Cemetery. 

In lieu of flowers, donations in Jan's memory are welcomed by John Clarke Nursing Center in Middletown, the Alzheimer's Family Support Center of Cape Cod, or the Mabel Wadsworth Center in Bangor, Maine.