Jenne

Solid.  Dependable.  Quiet, but always aware of what was going on.  Ready to help in any situation.  These words describe my Aunt Jenne.  My mother's older sister by 11 years, Jenne had to take on responsibility in the Stimpert family at a young age.  I  remember her telling me the story of doing the wash one day with a younger sibling in her arms.  Before she knew it the baby had put his arm in the wringer.  Thinking fast, Jenne was able to turn off the machine before any harm was done.  But that memory stuck with her for as long as she lived.

Jenne was a nurse.  I assume this picture was taken when she was new to her profession.  She worked as an RN at the TB Sanitorium outside of Bloomington, Illinois.  The only time I saw her when I was growing up was when I would visit my Aunt Taty in ElPaso .  Jenne would come there on her day off.  She loved all of us.  And she was good to us.  Books, special candy treats, and always a shiny new quarter(unheard of wealth in our day when we usually were given a dime) were her gifts to us.

But she shared something else with her family.  Unquestioning loyalty.  Persistent love in the face of overwhelming odds.  We had several "thorny" people in our family.  Jenne was the peace-maker.  It might take a while.  One month, a year, several years, and then the errant wanderer would come back into the fold.

After she retired she was the resident nurse for the family.  She stayed with her older brother and helped him until he died.  I know she had some problems with him.  He was cranky and used harsh words on almost all occasions.  Jenne said she had a fool-proof solution to keeping her temper.  "I just go in my room, close the door, kneel down and pray, and generally God gives me the answer.  Anyway, when I feel better, I go back and ask Henry just what it was that he wanted.  And then he is happier too."

Inner strength.   And an unstoppable belief that God would make things right.  That's what Jenne taught us.

She loved to read.  Andy and I gave her a subscription to The Christian Science Monitor one year for Christmas.  She would read through the issue and clip out articles she thought we would like.  And mail them to us.  Along with a box of no-bake cookies.  She was so generous...in all things.

When she passed away in the early 80's we were on vacation and unable to go the services.  But afterward when we went to the cemetery to visit her grave we found out that she wasn't there.  She had written in her will, and kept it from the family, that she wanted her body donated to science after she died.  So there was nothing to bury there in that family plot, near her dad and other family members.

But she lives on.  If I had had another little girl her name would have been Jenne.  She lives in our hearts.  And when good things happen to me, I look skyward and say a little prayer....Thank you Jenne for teaching me how to look beyond myself and see the real reason I am here.

She was truly one of a kind.