"FOOTPRINTS" was a favorite of Sherry's, she had plaques and photos of it around her home. It was used in the Stevens Mortuary pamphlet for the Funeral Service information, along with a photo of Sherry.
~.~.~ ~.~.~ ~.~.~
Services
Celebration of Life for Sherry - Wednesday September 25th from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Funeral Services - 11:00 am Thursday, September 26th
Sherry loved Angels and had collected them throughout the years, and there were always many in her home. There were also several Angels added to her beautiful flower arrangements.
Sherry would have loved seeing the many beautiful flowers sent for her, and all of the Angels too!
~.~.~ ~.~.~ ~.~.~
I kept one Angel (per my sister-in-law's request, from the flowers she and her husband sent) to bring home with me as a keepsake in Sherry's memory, a beautiful Angel that lights up.
Sherry's my guardian angel watching over me now.
~.~.~ ~.~.~ ~.~.~
As is usually always the case, the sadness of losing a loved one is very hard and the days and moments following can be harder still. The outpouring of concern from loved ones, family and friends is a great comfort in those times of need. Regretful of the circumstances, it was a time to hear from or to see and share time with many relatives and friends, some of which I had not seen in far too long! The many condolences, well wishes, hugs, tears, smiles and laughter all contributed in a meaningful way to the memory of Sherry, and she would be truly grateful, as am I. Sherry was loved by many and will live on in our memories, and in our hearts forever. I know I will continue to have moments of sadness for sure, but I will also then have moments where I laugh about a memory or two, or something she and I laughed about together. Sherry could definitely make me laugh! That is just one more thing that I loved about her!
~.~.~ ~.~.~ ~.~.~
Along with the many tears and the overwhelming sadness during Sherry's Funeral Service, there were beautiful songs played and some stories about Sherry that had been shared with, and then told by the Rev. Tony Johnson. There was also a light hearted story written and read by my and Sherry's niece, our sister Dawn's daughter, Jenny. I'll leave you with the letter to read for your enjoyment, and to have a little laughter, after all I feel Sherry would want us to laugh!
Letter written and read
by Jenny
My Aunt Sherry was the kindest, sweetest person, with a heart as big as her smile, willing to help anyone who needed her. Sherry would not hurt anyone…..UNLESS you decided to risk your life and ride in a car with her! One of my first glimpses into Sherry’s phenomenally bad driving ability was when I was somewhere between 5 and 7. As I often remember doing as a child, I spent the night at Aunt Sherry’s house. On this particular morning, we were going to pick up some breakfast before getting ready to head to the pool. Sherry drove all of us (Angie, Stevie, Kacie(who was the only one safe in a car seat!),Ron Ron and I) to the bakery to pick up doughnuts. Afterwards we stopped at the store to pick up milk, Angie went in. After several minutes, Sherry decided someone should go in and find out what was taking so long. I tried to open my door, however it was stuck, so I climbed out on the driver’s side and went to find Ang. Since the door was stuck, we both reentered the car on the driver’s side and left for Sherry’s house. We turned right out of parking lot and stopped at the intersection of 38th St. and Moller Rd., not to worry, we were GOING to make that light!! Sherry stepped on the gas and quickly turned left, while all the pressure of 3 people (unrestrained) in the front of her little sports car landed directly on the “stuck” door….which was no longer stuck! I remember her screaming as I grabbed the door and did an impressive “superman” impression before I hit the pavement. I’m pretty sure I got yelled at for that one, although, I’m not quite sure I purposely jumped out of a moving vehicle. Maybe my subconscious knew I was safer IN the road than IN the car with Sher behind the wheel!
Like most kids though, we just don’t learn from our mistakes! It wasn’t long before I found myself in the car with Sherry again. This time I was safely seated in the back, not near any wayward doors! We had been skating all afternoon, and were piled in the car to head home. Sherry started the car and pulled out of the only safe place around, the parking spot! You see, this time we didn’t even make it to the road! Now, if she could, she would tell you all right now that she was “yelling at these kids!”, but in reality, she was digging around in her purse for some unknown treasures. She didn’t brake first, she didn’t take her foot off the gas, she also didn’t look out the windshield, or she would have seen the 3 foot BOULDER dead ahead, like the iceberg that took down the titanic, with only slightly less damage! The car was no match for the mountain it was blindly being steered toward. Like The Lion Song, we can’t go under it, can’t go around it, gotta go OVER it. Which is where we landed….perched right on top of a 3 foot rock. It took a tow to get the car down, but at least no one was hurt right?
Many years later, when I was pregnant with Kayla, and the trauma of our earlier car rides had faded, I once again placed my life in Sherry’s hands and car. We left my house and within a mile down the road Sherry saw something shiny, or a squirrel, or maybe just the wind, but either way, she was rubber necking looking out the passenger side window. There was nothing notable to look at, except perhaps the median out the other window that we ran up on! Ok…seems minor comparatively, right? She refocused on the road, and it looks like we will make it after all! We merge on to 465 without incident, and get up to speed, in the fast lane of course. Then BOOM!!!!!!! Can’t see…what happened? The hood (which I’m sure was jarred loose doing median bumper cars a few minutes ago) had flown up and smacked the windshield! We have to get across to the shoulder without hitting anyone, and no visibility out of the front windshield! I was AMAZED that she did it, but now I think that it should be no surprise she navigated through the traffic to safely reach the other side, only the windshield was blocked, and she seldom used that anyway!
That was my final trip with Sherry behind the wheel. I was about to have a baby, and frankly, had too much to live for!
Even after hearing all these stories, Larry decided to ride with her. Did he think we were making this stuff up? Was he convinced we were exaggerating? Did he just merely believe that no one person could drive so badly and still have a license, therefore it should be fine? I bet he believed us after they pulled out on to 10th street, and she completely let go of the wheel…..Let. it. Go! And turned around in the driver seat, yelling “WHERE’S MY PURSE???? WHERE’S MY PURSE?” As luck would have it, she found her purse, and another median! Good thing Larry was there to grab the wheel, because apparently that car didn’t have autopilot!!!!
I will miss Aunt Sherry with all my heart, and I know she’s in Heaven, finally free of the pain and suffering that goes with being on this earth, just as I am sure that our Lord is smart enough to only give her “training wings” and have lots of clouds around for padding when she runs into stuff!!!!
<3 <3 <3
