How joyfully vibrant they both were! Even after so much time, it is easy to picture their bright faces as they share the Plan of Salvation with those who didn't have the opportunity to embrace it in this life.
Sometimes, I can still hear Jenny's laughter as she romped through my home with my two youngest daughters, as she frolicked with the other girls in my Activity Days class, and as she brightened any soccer field she played on. I loved the way she'd giggle and say, "I rock! Jenny really rocks!"
Not surprisingly, those words found their way into a poem I wrote for Jenny the day I learned of her death. Out of state at the time, I couldn't get home for her funeral, and the only way I could calm myself was to write down this poem as it came in one unedited draft from my heart:
Jenny's feet
flew over soccer fields,
her honey-kissed hair
glinting in the sun.
When she could run,
she never walked.
She was the one
whose laughter rippled--
filled the air
and lingered there,
until the whole
world "rocked."
"Jenny rocks!"
She said it in a way
that made you want to stop,
cast off the ordinary day,
and wear the sun
upon your shoulders
like she did.
She never hid her appetite for life,
but managed in
a few short years
to weather challenges
and measure tears.
Joy, unrationed,
filled her cup.
Wherever Jenny was,
the sun came up.
Often, I pause at the cemetery near my home and spend a quiet moment at Jenny's grave, thanking my Heavenly Father that I had the privilege to know her. My heart is warmed by a picture I have of Jenny on an Activity Days outing. See how she is nestled in an alcove of the Temple (left top row).
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| Jenny at the Salt Lake Temple (Top left) |
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| "Returned With Honor" |
I know Sarah Van Komen was a gift to those around her, too. How often I've heard the people who knew her describe her as an "angel" in expressing their love for her! I was able to attend her funeral and had the impression that she was truly one of Heavenly Father's choice spirits.
Until we meet again, Jenny and Sarah...
