Janette Marie (Ardelt) Ardelt-Hiltgen

Janette Marie Ardelt-Hiltgen, age 74, of Colchester, CT, passed away peacefully at home on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024, with her loving husband Chris by her side. Janette was born and raised in the Bronx, where she graduated from Evander Child’s High School in 1967. She was the first person in her family to obtain a college degree when she graduated from Lehman College in NYC with a Bachelor of Arts in 1971. After college, Janette found employment at Otis Elevator Company, and left the Bronx, moving to Bristol in 1977 when Otis relocated its headquarters from NY to Farmington, CT. She was one of the first female computer programmer/analysts in the company, where she worked for 35 years, and met her future husband and soul mate, Chris, who joined the company in 1979. To know Janette was to love her. Kind hearted and even tempered, she had a great sense of humor as well as an inner calm and strength which was rooted in her Catholic faith, attending church every Sunday. Janette was an avid Beatles fan, and saw them in concert at Shy Stadium in 1965 at age 16. She developed a love for dancing in college, joining a traveling dance troupe that performed traditional Hawaiian dances and remained active performing in that group several years after graduation. She loved playing mini-golf with Chris, Scrabble, and playing penny slots and Bingo at the casino. Janette loved to curl up with a good book, and often had 2-3 books going at the same time. She also loved the comic strip “Peanuts”, specifically Snoopy and Woodstock. They loved traveling, camping in the “dirty old forest” and spending time with family and friends. One of her biggest passions in life came from her trips to Walt Disney World where she and Chris would take trips nearly every year. This was a tradition that started on their honeymoon, and over the years she and Chris made 46 trips to WDW. They spent 38 years in love and enjoying each other’s company, and mostly the simple things of everyday life. Janette will be forever loved and remembered by her devoted husband Chris Hiltgen, niece Karen Riley (Steffan), nephew Adam Steffan and his wife Miku, grandnieces Katherine and Caroline Riley, brother-in-law Richard Hiltgen and wife Elizabeth Hiltgen, mother-in-law Doris Hiltgen, and numerous other extended family and friends. She was predeceased by her mother Nancy (Anne) V. Riley, father Harold J.Ardelt, sister Christine Steffan, and brother-in-law Robert Steffan. Visitation will be held on Friday, April 5, 2024, from 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM at the Aurora-McCarthy Funeral Home, 167 Old Hartford Rd, Colchester, CT 06415. A Funeral Mass will be held at 11:00 AM at the St. Francis of Assisi Church, 67 W Town St, Lebanon, CT 06249. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers the family asks that memorial donations be made to the American Cancer Society www.cancer.org

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