I know many of you were not able to make it to the service but were there in spirit and prayers. My family and I want to thank you so much for your continued prayers and thoughts. We have been so overwhelmed with the outpouring of love from friends and family…some I didn’t even know we had! : ) I wanted to share with you the eulogy I read at the service. I figured this would be a good way for you to maybe get to know Penny a little better and put a beautiful face to a name. And to answer your question, the Holy Spirit got me through this. I had the flu Thursday night, but He healed me long enough to get up there, do this, and get through the rest of the day. It was all the Holy Spirit, so give all credit and honor to Him. Maybe in a couple of days I’ll post the picture slide show we did of Penny at the service as well. It was really nice.
Love.
When Penny and I were very young we were often mistaken for twins, we looked that much alike. However, from the very get go Penny and I were two very different people. I came out sleeping and Penny came out angry they had woken her up and taken her from her nice warm home! We were complete opposites. She played with Barbie’s, and my Ninja Turtles beat up her Barbie’s. I was always outside playing with the guys, and Penny was always inside doing her own thing. She would take her stuffed animals and sit them down and play school with them. I don’t know what she taught them, but she taught them something! When she would play house, she was always the momma and she always had to be the cook.
In fact, some of my favorite memories of Penny are when we would take family vacations to the White Mountains in Arizona. We always went up there with my mom’s side of the family, so all of my cousins, my sister, and I would set up a “house” with whatever was around our campsite…a fallen tree trunk, huge boulders, little rocks. It didn’t matter what it was we used it as apart of our “house.” Penny was always the one who took care of the kitchen. She would always find the rock we would use as the stove, and she would even gather the rocks we used as make believe food. We didn’t have to be camping for her to pretend to be the momma and be in charge of cooking something. She would often grab a bucket and throw in some dirt, grass, water, and whatever else she could find. She would then mix that all together with a big stick and make the foulest smelling mud pie I’ve ever smelled. And, like all cooks, she was the first (and only) to taste her creation!
Like all people, Penny had her quarks. She was messy…actually she’s probably the messiest person I know! I could tell you endless stories of the things we found living at the bottom of her piles in her room, but I’ll spare you. Another one of her quarks was, in her own words, “eating old, dead Cheerios,” and there’s a videotape to prove it! 3-day-old Cheerios that had been sitting in the garage were no match for my sister! She had others, and I’m sure you all could think of your own…but those are the ones I’ll always remember.
Despite her quarks and her knucklehead ness when she was older, Penny was the most loving person you would have ever met. Her smile would do you in. You could not be mad at her for long once she smiled that unique smile of hers. A lot of times, she wouldn’t have to say a thing in order for you to know she loved you. She could just sit with you and watch a movie or TV show with you and you knew it. Nothing she did, nothing she said…just her presence would be affirming enough. In fact, the last thing we did was watching a TV show together, while I ate some food she had brought home from Applebee’s.
She loved everybody she came in contact with, but none more so than her son, Kaleb. She loved him, and still does, with all her heart. And she loved, and still does, her daughter, Hayleigh. It was so exciting to watch her get ready for this new bundle of joy. She was so excited she was having a baby girl, and I have no doubt she would have loved her as much as she loves Kaleb. And right now, both her and Hayleigh are getting to experience the perfect love that only comes from the Father. Penny made her mistakes but she declared Jesus as her Savior and Lord, and because of that God’s perfect love forgave all. Penny and Hayleigh are at this very moment dancing and twirling before the throne of God, and now we have two more reasons to want Jesus to come down here and take us home quicker.
