GRAFTON — Many will say there is good in everyone but Janet Sullivan believed it, and searched for it, never giving up on anyone battling a crisis in their lives.

Sullivan moved from Massachusetts to Grafton with her husband, John, and two sons in 1980. She was in her mid-40s when she became a volunteer with the 24-hour crisis hotline operated by Headrest, a Lebanon-based nonprofit founded in 1971 to assist those struggling with substance misuse disorder, experiencing a crisis or otherwise in need of support.

It was the first step in a long career, counseling both individuals and families experiencing alcohol or drug addiction, domestic violence, mental health issues and other crises. Regardless of their circumstances, Sullivan, who died at the age of 81 on March 10 following a brief illness, held to an unwavering belief in redemption.

“When someone or a family needed help with substance abuse or any other kind of help, she was there,” said her husband, John. “She always said, no one can be all bad.’ She never had a cross word about anyone, even when they would relapse. I never heard her say, ‘he is useless, she is useless, or what do they know?’ She helped a lot of people. That was her life.”

Born Janet Resteghini in Somerville, Mass., on March 19, 1942, Sullivan’s father had health issues that affected his ability to work. She grew up poor and that early life formed her interaction with others who struggled with adversity.

“The family had nothing. We always had enough to eat in our house. She didn’t,” said her husband.

Carol Lodi, of Harvard, Mass., said her cousin’s difficult life at a young age didn’t prevent her from finding good in the world.

“She had a tough life, but boy, was she cheerful,” said Lodi, 13 years younger than her cousin. “My father was the most influential person in my life and she was the second most influential person in my life.”

Sullivan was offered a scholarship to Boston University while in high school but after her father died when she was 18, she went to work to support the family.

As a secretary at Harvard Business School, Sullivan met John who worked in the mail room, and they were married in 1963. Missing a first opportunity for college, Sullivan never lost her enthusiasm for knowledge. In addition to her counseling education, Sullivan earned a degree in professional studies with the College of Lifelong Learning in Lebanon and was a self-published poet.

“At the business school, she realized education was a way out of poverty,” John said.

When the family moved to Grafton, her husband worked on construction projects at Dartmouth College while Sullivan supervised housekeeping at Alice Peck Day Hospital. She later became a Headrest volunteer and committed herself to the field of counseling, which suited her personality and life experiences.

“She had an aura that drew people in,” said Doris M. Faughnan, a mental health and addiction counselor who was a colleague of Sullivan’s. “What set her apart from the rest was that she instantly put you at ease because she was a grandmotherly type.”

Wise and direct at the same time, Faughnan said, “Janet had an air of self-assurance that made you comfortable in her presence.”

Robert Bryant, who became a volunteer at Headrest at the same time Sullivan did and became her friend and colleague, said Sullivan had unique gifts for counseling those experiencing difficult times.

“She could see the good in people they couldn’t see in themselves and that was a special gift,” Bryant said. “She was a cheerleader for the fallen and got them back on their feet.”

Bryant likened Sullivan’s life and impact on others to a film production.

“Janet was Best Supporting Actress in many dramas that turned rising above into an art form,” Bryant said. “On the safe stage of an office visit, she brought out the best in many seekers and helped them leave the rest behind. She knew more about building good storylines than most other clinicians.”

At Headrest, Sullivan began the organization’s first ongoing substance misuse therapy group for women and co-facilitated a therapy group for men who batter. She also was a case manager for several months at Seminole Point in Sunapee, counseling people impacted by alcoholism.

Sullivan would sometimes personalize her counseling relationships and connect with people by talking about her own experiences, Lodi said.

“She shared with people her background. Most people won’t say anything, it is all one way,” Lodi said. “But Janet was very open and she just made people feel comfortable.”

Sullivan earned her degree in human services and alcoholism counseling from New Hampshire Technical Institute in 1987 and became a certified alcohol and drug abuse counselor in Vermont.

While the education was necessary for her work, which included a private practice she opened in Norwich in 1987, Donlon Wade, one of the founders of Headrest, said Sullivan did not follow the clinical approach when she recognized that common sense and the wisdom of experience were more valuable.

“She was able to cut through that high fog and get down to what people needed instead of using all these theories,” Wade said. “She was so grounded.”

Wanda Knudsen received counseling from Sullivan for about a year in 1991.

“I had just left a long-time relationship and wanted to be sure I wasn’t going to walk into the same sort of mess again,” said Knudsen, who became a Headrest volunteer and today is a case manager with HIV/HCV Resource Center in Lebanon and a licensed alcohol and drug counselor in Vermont.

At Headrest, when a call came in for a potential suicide, protocol required that the on-call counselor be contacted and debriefed, Knudsen said.

“Janet was on-call and she just had this ability to listen, not react,” Knudsen said. “You knew she cared about you and she cared about what happened. She really did care about everyone. I watched her help so many people. Just a phenomenal woman.”

Wade remembers Sullivan’s seemingly innate ability to reach people who needed help.

“She knew almost everybody in the community,” Wade said. “She could reach most anybody in her counseling and she could find the common ground with them. She was attuned to their need for support around addiction and family violence.

“I would call her the glue for families, for her family and lots of Upper Valley families.”

Sullivan built many relationships that went beyond counselor-client.

“She made a lot of friends and kept in contact with a lot of people she helped over the years in her practice and at Headrest,” Wade said. “Lots of people have benefited from her expertise and support and they appreciated that. She could be that glue that might be missing in some families.”

Sullivan also helped people in her role as Grafton’s welfare director for a time, said Faughnan, who lived in the town for many years.

“That was in her nature to help people who were in trouble,” Faughnan said. “It was her respect and acceptance for clients in their current states of being. There was a valuing of honesty and mutual respect and she role-modeled that. She served the underserved as if it were an honor.”

From her own upbringing, Sullivan understood poverty and never let that be a barrier to helping someone.

“A lot of people need services but don’t have the money,” Wade said. “Janet didn’t care if you didn’t have money. She would say, ‘It’s going to be OK,’ and not let them feel bad about it. She didn’t embarrass people.”

Sullivan had a community impact beyond her counseling work. Talented in arts and crafts, Wade said Sullivan was a gifted gardener who grew beautiful flowers and also started a knitting and crocheting cooperative in Grafton.

“She taught a lot of women how to do it and then had them make different things. She would bring them to stores in the Upper Valley to sell and bring them back the money so they could have an income,” Wade said. “She found a way to give them a really good skill in a non-threatening way.”

A volunteer in area schools, Sullivan loved working with students. One year she knitted winter caps for the Mascoma High School basketball team in the school colors of purple and gold.

Sullivan helped others quietly, without drawing attention to herself, her former colleagues said.

“She was kind of an underground superstar,” Bryant said. “... She kept showing up but wasn’t a showboat.”

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.