For those of you who may not have met my sister in person, I would like to start out by telling you that she is an inspiration to many. Her entire life has pretty much been devoted to three things; faith, family (this includes her friends), and art. At least that is the way I view it. Everything she has touched or done has in some way lead to art or been finished in a unique artistic “Jenni” kind of way. She has always been devoted in everything that she has ever done and has always viewed life as a lesson to be learned or some great adventure where beauty can be discovered. The amazing part to us, is that life has been handing her a pretty crappy hand of cards her entire life and it never really stopped her. She was adopted into the family, was moved from school to school with the rest of us, has lost a great deal of family and friends in death, has lived to work through 3 major national disasters, completely 4 forms of training/college/diploma courses that I know of, served in the navy, was a Nanny and for the last 2 ½ has battled with cancer while taking on the battles in our family as well. She continued to dance (ballet), and take care of the Navy kids, and teach until recently when it was only not possible to do so because she was merely in and out of consciousness, but you better believe that she still communicates with all the above people.
There are so many things that I haven’t even listed that many people have been touched by, but those just the basics. The technical side of the story is that my sister was raised in northern PA with a rather large family and according to her, never really fit in. She was more like and still is the middle ground for 4 different families that unite in the middle. She is our mediator, photographer and most importantly the one we go to when we need someone to listen to us and help us fix our problems. She has a college degree in Biology with a minor in Mortuary but instead of furthering her education after that, she joined the Navy, (to help pay for her Master Degree which is still in the works), where she was severely injured and later diagnosed with a rare form of sarcoma called Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma in October of 2006. This is a cancer which affects the bones and cartilage. Jenn has undergone everything from radiations to bone marrow transplants(2), where although her odds of survival are still only 2%, she continues to prove to the world that her smile is not ready to fade. Her cancer has since began to invade her internal organs and in the last 6 months we have been mostly hospital bound with little precious time left but we have continued to learn a great deal about the woman Jenn has become and continues to become in each passing struggle.
*Special Note for those who are knew- As you follow this blog you will often hear my sister referred to as Snowflake or JenniBean which are nick names that have been acquired throughout her life because of her love for both Snow and Jellybeans.
Finally the update.
Many of you remember how this long 7-8 months started. In June Jenn broke her hip by falling and with much work and determination on both our parts, struggled but successfully managed to participate in her best friends' wedding in September. We never really thought that those might be some of the last exciting days we would share with my sister outside of the hospital setting but never the less they it was a great accomplishment for my sister. For those that were around at the time of the wedding they will remember that due to some turn of events my sister ended up dancing with what we now call the "puppet man". It was actually the groomsman she walked with and the grooms uncle. Because the Puppet man was needed to save the day, the puppet formally known as Eli was added to the group and since then has been a great form of happiness for my sister and in the last 7 months a great form of relief for my family as well. We are not only constantly getting text messages from the best friends that got married but Rick's uncle and the puppets as well.
Last night My sister was able to not only talk to Rick and Erin but was able to enjoy a few puppet videos in the comfort of her hospital room and so we decided that we would share some of them with all of you so that you might enjoy them too. The first is of Eli because that is Jenn's favorite puppet and all time dance partner.
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