Remembering Jenn

Well today is a sad day for me, 4 years ago today I watched as my best friend Jenn was taken off life support in her mother’s arms after a scuba diving accident in the San Juan Islands, and I would like to take the time to share with all of you how special she was.

 “What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” ~Aristotle

I met Jenn just after she started college during sorority recruitment. We immediately hit it off when she came to visit the first day, and her sister Kristin was also a Chi Omega so I thought there was a good chance she soon would be too. Well as fate would have it, she did join Chi Omega and I couldn’t have been happier. And even better, she soon became my sorority “little sister”.

Here she is with her bid day class

Jenn and I spent the next 3 and a half years that I was in school practically inseperable and as roommates for most of that time. I stayed an extra semester in college to finish a minor, but mostly because I just didn’t want to leave! We had so much fun together – so many inside jokes, fun trips, late nights, and basically we could just look at each other and start cracking up for no reason at all. We had a lot of great friends and sorority sisters, but you can bet if we weren’t together someone would ask where the other one was. And the funny thing was, in a lot of ways Jenn and I were complete opposites. I was the high strung emotional one where Jenn was the laid back cool girl that everyone loved. But somehow it just worked and I could depend on Jenn for anything.

“I’ve learned that my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.” – Unknown

Digital camera’s were not popular back in the day when I was in school, so I don’t have a lot of pictures from then in a format I can add here, but here is one when we went back for Homecoming in 2006.

When I couldn’t drag out college any longer, I moved to Seattle after I graduated in December 2003, and as soon as Jenn graduated with her nursing degree in 2005 she got a job at Harborview as a Trauma Surgery nurse and moved up to live with me. We had a great little apartment in the Interbay area and I have so many fun memories from that time.

“Friendship isn’t a big thing – it’s a million little things.” – Unknown

Here are some of my favorites from college and Seattle:

• The day Jenn became my little sister, I was so excited!
• Dancing at every opportunity to “Baby Got Back”, Jenn’s theme song due to her perfect bubble butt
• Our last minute trip to Puerto Penasco aka “Rocky Point” in Mexico for Labor Day one year – 4 of us ended up staying in a tiny room at a hotel we call “The Pink Box” and survived on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and beer for 3 days.
• Me picking Jenn up from the airport in a police car – don’t ask but lesson learned that you should follow up if you don’t receive traffic ticket court date info
• On a random Saturday lunch at the Cheesecake Factory managing to meet and hang out with the behind the scenes designers from “Extreme Home Makeover”. Guys fell head over heels for Jenn and one of these guys was no exception!
• Being there at the finish line when Jenn finished the Seattle marathon
• Joking about how we would have to get married and have houses next door to each other because we had lived together for so long we couldn’t manage to ever live very far apart.

Here we are her first Halloween in Seattle – she was a green M&M, I was Mrs. Claus

A trip we took to Portland together

Fremont Oktoberfest

Mariners!

Trip to Vegas!

Jennifer’s last birthday celebration, her 25th – long story about the outfits!

And here we are in one of our last pictures taken together on the bus to the Kenny Chesney concert

“Everyone wants to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” – Oprah Winfrey

Jenn passed away right after she had left Harborview and had started working as a nurse in the Neonatal unit at Children’s Hospital. Jenn was a wonderful nurse, she cared so much about her patients and loved what she did. In Jenn’s memory, I try and donate once a year on this day to Seattle Children’s Hospital. If you knew Jenn and would also like to make a donation, you can do so here, and have a notice of the donation sent to her mother or sister. Feel free to message me if would like their address for the donation notice.

Here she is graduating from nursing school

I remember 4 years ago so well, my world felt like it would collapse without Jenn.  I had just started dating Michael and he stuck through all of the grief and sadness with me, as hard as it was. It really showed me that he was someone that wouldn’t leave when times were difficult.

“I always knew looking back on the tears would make me laugh. But I never knew looking back on the laughs would make me cry.” – Author Unknown

Jenn, your laugh and smile, infectious energy, caring heart, love of adventure, and amazing personality are missed by me and so many. I think of you all the time and will never forget how lucky I was to have a best friend like you. Your family and friends go on remembering to cherish each day because of you, and know that you would tell us all to stop crying and to start smiling when the sadness of not having you here overcomes us. Your life was an inspiration that we will never forget. And now I am going to try and stop crying. : )

“There are things that we don’t want to happen but have to accept, things we don’t want to know but have to learn, and people we can’t live without but have to let go.” ~Author Unknown