In Loving Memory

I am sad to say that my aunt Cheryl, 64, passed peacefully on June 3, 2008 at Calvary Hospital in New York City surrounded by her family after a long fight with breast cancer.

Cheryl enjoyed her family and friends. She loved reading and had a great love of the arts, especially the opera, theater and music. Most of all, she loved spending as much time as possible with her grandchildren and had a special place in her heart for babies. She had that special look, now passed on from her children to her grandchildren, to let them know what's what.

As a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she served in many callings including long service as Relief Society President and Primary teacher.

I have a lot of wonderful memories of my aunt. I mean no disrespect blogging about her, I only want to share how special I think she was.

For most of my childhood she and her family lived outside of the country. She would bring the kids (oh what a long flight it must have been!) and come visit for a few weeks every summer. Everyone was excited when they came to visit. It meant pure fun for the next 3 weeks! Staying up late, cousins galore, pronto pups,PB Cap'n Crunch cereal, ice-cream slushes and lots of ruby red squirt. I have to admit that one time I asked my mom if we could move so people would do fun stuff and get excited when we came. Never happened though. :)

Some of my favorite memories are:

The infamous "Singing in the Rain' dance. You were sure to look like an idiot by the time you finished but it was fun. And we cannot forget Bubble Gum Art. She thought no camping trip or hike was fit unless you had several packages of Bubble Gum. She taught me to always take a book camping. She'd get after me because I wouldn't have one and wanted to borrow hers all the time. Well, I don't forget now. :)

The tradition of a trip to Veyo Pool. Back in the day, it was cool. We'd get all the gang together and pile up in vans and of course, aunt Jodie's suburban. She would teach us how to dive and play all sorts of games. She'd like to catch us with her legs while we swam around doing underwater obstacle courses.

I remember this one time we went to Baskin Robbins for ice-cream. Her daughters could speak French so they told us what they wanted and then went up to the person and tried to order in French. Well they had no idea what they were saying and so I went up and pretended to interpret. The sales girl was awe struck and greatful. We thought we were so cool. It was pretty funny.

Aunt Cheryl loved to play games, especially Domino's. She took it pretty seriously too. At the ranch we'd get so many playing she'd say, "come on, gotta go faster!" We also had a great adventure together when our 4-wheeler wouldn't get into gear and we went off the cliff. I remember her saying, "oh good, maybe that tree will stop me from going all the way down." I always felt bad about that. We had some good bruises to show afterwards.

She was kind enough to always let me tag along on whatever excursion they were heading. She and her family made even moving sprinklers and feeding cows fun. She was a great example about how we should deal with life. She was very positive and I never heard her complain about being sick. When she lost her hair she even joked about buying a blonde wig to see if it would make her more fun.

I hope that whatever I face in life, I can have her same attitude and face it head on. I can't say enough how great of a person she was. I'm so glad we got to visit her while here in NY, I only wish it could have been more. We will greatly miss her. I am so thankful for family and the wonderful blessing of memories.