MONROE - Dawn Irene Jade (born Dawn Marie Johnson) passed away after a 2+ year battle with cancer on August 22, 2015. She was born April 27, 1986, in Berwyn, Ill. to Lisa (Gregory) Stitzer and Don Johnson.
Dawn spent the early part of her childhood in the Crest Hill area of Joliet, mostly playing outside and going to the public pool daily with her friend Ashley. Lisa divorced Don when Dawn was just 5 due to Don's problems with hard drugs, alcohol, gambling and domestic abuse. A short while later Lisa married Arthur Stitzer (deceased 2011) and the family moved to Winslow.
Shortly after moving to Winslow Art himself returned to alcoholism. Dawn's tumultuous adolescence and teenage years at home were spent defending herself from a drunken adult male who would pick physical fights and wage continual war on her mental and emotional states. Lisa rarely intervened and over the years grew to enjoy sparking arguments (as Dawn would say years later, her mother "loved chaos"). Dawn would retreat to the creek in her back yard as a place to find solace, but battled depression and the mental depths of hell for much of the remainder of her life. She also loved spending time wandering the town with her best friend Lindsi.
Dawn maintained good grades in school, graduating a semester ahead of the Class of 2004 at Le-Win High School. She worked numerous jobs to pay for her food, vehicle and pleasure in high school, most notably at Lena Bed & Biscuit, Swiss Colony, and 92.1 FM. She would go on to take college courses at Highland CC and Marquette University.
On Oct. 25, 2003, Dawn met Adam Krebs of Monroe, and the pair developed a unique up-and-down relationship that lasted until her death nearly 12 years later.
Dawn gave birth to the love of her life, daughter Perla Gardenia Jade, on April 20, 2006. Dawn left jobs at Charlton and MetLife to be an at-home mother while Adam pursued a career in journalism that had them travel all over Wisconsin.
In the spring of 2013, Dawn developed a severe bout of nausea that grew over the course of 6 weeks. An MRI in June showed she had golf-ball sized tumor located in the 4th ventricle of her brain right next to the cerebellum. Surgery was performed less than two weeks later at St. Mary's Hospital in Madison. Medulloblastoma, generally a childhood disease, was the culprit. Six weeks of radiation followed that fall and an MRI showed the cancer was not traceable in her neuro axis.
Just one year later, feelings of pain from within Dawn's bones arrived and she was nearly bedridden. Low blood counts, CT scans and biopsies showed her cancer had metastasized out of the neuro axis and into her bone marrow (a 1% chance). St. Mary's said their oncology team did not have the expertise to fight this rare cancer with chemo and that the drugs themselves would likely make the end of her life more painful. Dawn went to UW for a second opinion and received the same answer. After a short while of accepting that fate, Dawn went to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin for a third opinion, and CHW took in her case with open arms.
The following nine months of checkups and chemo were rough, but on June 1, 2015, biopsies showed no signs of the cancer. That joy was shortly lived - less than four weeks later her cancer was back. After a rough 21-day round of chemo and some slight brain hemorrhaging, Dawn opted to halt treatment on August 3. Her mother created more chaos during this time, rupturing an aneurysm in her brain and entered life support on Aug. 4. Dawn and Adam left the ICU in Milwaukee so Dawn could make the decision of removing life support from Lisa before entering her own hospice.
In Dawn's final moments of life, Adam held her hands and Adam's mother, Diane, and Dawn's longtime friend Doug sat bedside. Dawn took her final breath while her favorite song played - Joaquin Rodrigo's Concerto de Aranjuez Adagio. She is finally without pain and at peace.
Dawn is survived by her daughter, Perla Gardenia Jade; life partner, Adam Krebs; aunt Jenny Gregory, Chicago; uncle Arthur II (Tina) Gregory, Indiana; uncle Carl Gregory, Jackson, Mich.; and cousins Luke, Lokie, Arthur III, Sonja and Dylan. She is preceded in death by her mother Lisa; grandparents Arthur I and Irene (Olbryk); and her father Don Johnson.
Adam and Perla would like to thank the Monroe Clinic Hospice team for their kind care in those final two weeks. Huge thank you's go to the staff at CHW for giving Dawn, Perla and Adam an extra year together to make memories, grow their love and prepare for life after "mum." Thank you's also extend to the wonderful people of our state line communities and beyond, as well as our families for their love and support through these darkest of hours.
Dawn's memory will live for those surviving her by continuing to enjoy some of her favorite things: nature walks, scientific study, zoo adventures and gardening.
A late October celebratory memorial is being planned. Dawn's ashes will be spread in the Indian Creek in Winslow and buried where a new Bur Oak tree will be planted in her honor. A memorial plaque will be placed in her name at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens as well.
An online memorial is available at www.bealfuneralhomes.com