Born in 1956 in Beverly, Massachusetts, Jeannette was the daughter of Myrna Quant Shafer and Rev. Roger Shafer and the middle child of three. She spoke fondly of how each year, she piled into the backseat of the family car with her two sisters, Nina and Linda, and the family took a road trip together. Her mother saved up vacation days from her job as an executive secretary and her father used the little money he earned as a minister to make sure they saw the country together.
One part of the country they frequented each summer was Camp Peniel in Lake Luzerne, New York. It was at Camp Peniel that as teenagers, Jeannette and Jonathan Brownson first met. After growing up as a pastor’s daughter, Jeannette swore she would never become a pastor’s wife. She learned to never say never when her summer friendship with Jonathan turned into a long-distance romance after she graduated from Covenant College with a degree in Business in 1978. Before she knew it, she was moving to Holland, Michigan (for the first, but not last time) to work while Jonathan went to seminary. And two years later, she found herself married to a soon-to-be minister of the Reformed Church of America.
While she was always supportive of Jonathan’s professional calling, Jeannette also prided herself in not being a “typical” pastor’s wife. Her directness, honesty, and colorful sense of humor had a way of cutting through the pretense and seriousness of church life. Jeannette lived a faith that was dynamic and alive and unbounded by the four walls of a church. She worshiped a god who was amused by her occasional cussing and whose vision of justice and beloved community shaped her daily actions. Jeannette was not afraid to expand her Christian faith as her relationships and understanding of the world expanded. In doing so, she used her faith as an inclusive instrument rather than a weapon and it was her faith that provided meaning and strength in some of her most difficult moments.
After 20 years of being a full-time parent, early educator of her three children, and steadfast partner to Jonathan in his ministry, Jeannette had a professional renaissance. Beginning in 2001, she went to work in a real estate office as an administrative assistant. Within 6 years, she earned her real estate license and started selling houses for a large brokerage firm. But Jeannette dreamed of creating connection and community directly through finding people homes and doing it her own way. Plus, as she told it, “I knew I could do it just as well, if not better, than all the men I was working for!” With this vision as her guide, she went on to earn her brokerage license to enable her to work for herself. In 2007, she gave birth to Brownson Properties, a brokerage and property management company that supports first-time and historically discriminated-against home buyers and renters to find homes in and around downtown Holland, where Jeannette lived and worshiped. Brownson Properties was founded on one of the first real estate redistribution models in Holland, donating 10% of all of Jeannette’s commissions to local nonprofits of her client’s choosing.
It was one of Jeannette’s rituals to read the obituaries every day. When asked why she would reply “I want to know their stories”. Jeannette always wanted to know your story. And as her daily ritual attests, she would get it out of you one way or another. Often that meant asking a question others may consider inappropriate or impolite. After all, being perceived as inappropriate or impolite usually mattered very little to Jeannette. What did matter to her was learning your story and making you laugh. Jeannette had a deep attunement to the things that create and grow connective tissue between us – to laughter, to giving and receiving care, to storytelling, to the belief in the unseen forces around us, to allocating resources to where they are most needed, and to remember names, faces and personal details with bizarre accuracy. She was a vibrant and generous spirit whose courage in the face of incredibly scary sh** (she would want us to say that) continues to inspire those she leaves behind.
In what would turn out to be the last years of her life, we witnessed Jeannette intentionally tend to her inner life and to talents and depth that she was often not given credit for by the world. She took a writing class that honored the sharp and beautiful writer she was and gave her space to explore memory and art in a new way. You may be one of the lucky families that received a very soft baby blanket crocheted by Jeannette upon the arrival of your little one. To better communicate with her Spanish-speaking friends and neighbors, Jeannette was committed to her Duolingo streaks; barely missing a daily lesson. And ten years ago, she started therapy for the first time in her life to courageously face her wounds with compassion and love. Her dedication to her own mental and spiritual growth and healing bore fruit in so many ways; not least of which in her relationships with her children. This effort was a gift for which they will always be grateful.
With determination and humor, Jeannette thwarted cancer’s timeline to welcome her first grandchild, share food and wine with friends, continue to find homes for community members, and celebrate weddings, holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries that doctors didn’t believe she would live to see, travel, and spend time at home with family, and take daily walks with her beloved person, Jonathan. Though her time was cut unjustly short, she spent it well.
Jeannette is survived by her husband, Jonathan Brownson, their three children; Benjamin, Joanna, and Samuel, their partners; their grandchild, Kieran; two sisters, three brothers-in-law, a sister-in-law, and fifteen nieces and nephews. She is also survived by a deep and wide community of friends and chosen family.
The family wants to thank all the people who have stayed connected and showed up for Jeannette and the family during the darkest and brightest times of the past three and a half years, and who we know will continue to do so in the time ahead. You make up a vast web of “invisible threads” near and far that we believe Jeannette will continue to gently tug on from the beyond. We know that the loss of Jeannette is shared grief amongst many that will reverberate throughout the community she nurtured and who nurtured her.
Visitation with the family is 4:00-7:00 pm on Monday, October 17, 2022, at Langeland Sterenberg Funeral Home, 315 E. 16th St. Holland, MI 49423.
Memorial Services are at 11:00 am on Tuesday, October 18, 2022, at BLVD Church, 238 W. 15th St. Holland, MI 49423.
Burial to take place in Pilgrim Home Cemetery.
Memorial contributions in Jeannette’s honor may be given to the “Making Room at the Table” Campaign of BLVD Church, 238 W. 15th St. Holland, MI 49423.
