Jennifer Joy was such a big part of my formative years. It is hard to believe that she is gone from the earth for now. It makes me reflect on how I have and am spending my time in mortality. Do I serve, love, and live to the fullest. I am human, so the answer will always be, "no," but I will try to be better and more purposeful.
I looked through my keepsakes for memories of Jeni this morning. I discovered I am terrible at photographic documentation which is too bad because each photo I do have sparks many memories. I could have held on to more of those. Could have, should have.
This picture was taken in Ensanada, Mexico. We had the best Spanish teachers at our high school. None but the best would take a large group of high school Spanish students out of the country once or twice a year. Look at our 90's fashion flare - high wasted jeans, requisite belt, lots of denim. Oh yeah.
Our senior year we went to "Math Camp" to study for our Calculus AP exam. We had the best math teachers at our school too. Mr. Purtill and Ms. Treanor hauled us to Beaver Dam, AZ where we stayed at a less than new motel and studied math! In between study sessions we locked ourselves out of our room and Ammon Diether helped us break in with a library card (because the room doors had actually locks on them and we were too young to own credit cards.)
These photos are from our trip up the road from Beaver Dam to St. George, UT where we did a little miniature golfing.
Yep, I'm not the best at miniature golfing so I had to retrieve my ball from the water to continue the course.
Immediately after we graduated high school, Jeni and I started attending the Stake Singles Ward. Since my brother Calvin was already attending said Ward and was a Ward Activity Chairman, Jeni and I got called to be Ward Activity Committee members. Here we are attending an activity at Warm Springs in Nevada. My favorite Singles Ward activity memory -- we took canoes below Boulder/Hoover Dam. We canoed in the morning, stopped for lunch along the river, and dipped our toes in the frigid waters. After lunch somebody decided that we were canoeing to slowly and we should tie our canoes in a line behind a motor boat which would tow us to our end destination in no time. Jeni and I were in the end canoe of the line. The motor boat started to pull, our canoe turned sideways and tipped us out into the freezing cold river. Yikes!
Our freshman year at college Jeni and I were roomies. These pictures are from the Preference Dance. Jeni went with Rob-whose last name escapes me all these years later- who it turns out my brother-in-law Mark knew. Small world. I do remember that Rob and Jeni's whirlwind, short romance produced a beanbag chair that we referred to as the "evil" beanbag chair.
Kristinita and Jeni look lovely together.
This photo is from my 18th birthday celebration at college. My 18th birthday fell on the first day of school. I was glad I brought some friends from Nevada to college with me so I had good company to celebrate with.
Jeni and Kristen were room roommates because they made it to the apartment before I did. You snooze, you lose. (I had a great roommate from Korea.)
It is good to remember all the happiness that was Jeni. We both loved music and would meet up to watch "The Big 80's" on VH1 in between classes. We had many a dance party together. There was also a shared love for sacred music. One of our YW personal progress projects was a joint undertaking of helping to facilitate a Christmas youth combined choir for our Stake and the Lake Mead Stake. We also performed in Michael McClean's "Forgotten Christmas Carols" when we were in high school.
I loved the trips we used to take to the CranWorld factory in Henderson. We would hurry through the tour to sample all the goodies at the end. Ditto for Ethel M chocolates. We were regulars.
I remember heading out for a shopping trip to the Boulevard Mall with Jeni one afternoon. We somehow lost our way and ended up at my Dad's office, on Rainbow. He kindly gave us directions to the Meadows Mall, which we were now in much closer proximity to, and barely laughed at us at all.
We didn't get to see much of each other in recent years. I keep moving farther and farther away from the Nevada of our home, but each time we did speak or meet to catch up I felt like we were as good of friends as ever. Jeni is such as special person and she lived through all of her trials with strength and grace. I love you girl! I look forward to a happy friend reunion again someday.
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