Elizabeth Ann Jensen
Eulogy June 2010
This talk was given at Liz’s Utah funeral. I chose to represent Liz as an example of an amazing friend and thus tried to represent her friends across the world.
Liz became my friend because she was doing her church calling. She had been assigned as my visiting teacher and was the first person from Huntington Beach to visit me in my apartment. We became friends fairly quickly. When we both decided that we needed a change in living environments we were blessed to quickly find our new home, apt#6. Liz was the one who nicknamed the apartment apt#6 and suggested we start our apartment blog with the same name. When my cousin Chris and his friend Ian came to visit from Australia, just two weekends after we moved in, they helped us hang pictures and set up a life and home together.
Our life in Apt#6 has been documented on our blog, which I suggest you read if you want to know of Liz’s adventures, testimony, and dreams. At first, she was a willing participant in my crazy escapades like tie-dying shopping bags and baby onsies in our garage on a Sunday night. Later, she was the mastermind of jaunts that were similarly crazy and creative. One morning I woke up to find a scroll placed next to my car keys. When I unrolled the scroll I found that she had made a fancy invitation that said I had been invited to a princess party at Disneyland and I had to wear the colors of my favorite princess and meet at Disneyland at 5:00 for the party. We had other Friday nights at Disneyland with our friends and found that Disney served as an entertaining and affordable way to entertain us while at the happiest place on earth. I was at Disneyland last Tuesday with a group of friends who are still grieving for our loss of Liz. While standing in line for the Soaring California ride I noticed the picture of Amelia Earhart and immediately thought of Liz. She read books about Amelia and even dressed as her for Halloween one year. I think Emily borrowed the same outfit for Halloween last year. Liz wanted to dress like Amelia because she admired her adventurous spirit and impact on women around the world. That Halloween I was in Mississippi so I didn’t see Liz’s outfit, but she sent me an email that explained why she wanted to be Amelia, “she was such a happy woman who always looked sun-kissed in her pictures.” Forever now I will pass that picture of Amelia at Disneyland and say a prayer in my heart to remember Liz’s passion for life. Throughout our years as friends and roommates we wrote thousands of emails to each other. Liz liked to communicate her fears, thoughts and testimony to me in her writing. I found the same outlet of feelings in my emails to her. Sometimes our emails were quick notes to plan for an evening walk down Main Street and to the end of the pier. At the pier she would always take a moment to search for the outline of Catalina Island on the horizon and think of her summers on the island with her family. Out of everything we talked about, or wrote about, Liz would mention her family daily. Emily and Kate have been to apt#6 twice and I saw the love that they have for each other when they did dress up fashion shows, were eating dinner on our closet door table, or were trying to be thoughtful of my needs as I studied or was jetlagged during their visit.
When Liz was happiest she was serving at church or in the temple, which truly are the happiest places on earth. She shared her testimony in her emails and on the blog and in her callings in church. She was a Relief Society teacher and she patiently studied her lessons and made treats for the sisters in her ward. The Huntington Beach 1st ward and the Pierside Ward benefited from Liz’s service. In both wards she served as a faithful visiting teacher and as a volunteer for the many social activities that the stake organized. When the state of California voted to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman Liz was actively involved in sharing her beliefs. She stood on the side of PCH to show solidarity and she wrote about her voting position on the blog. Liz had a strong testimony of her relationship with her Savior and was an advocate for the things that she knew to be correct. I will remember that she went to the temple often and had plans to visit the Brisbane temple this month. Even in Australia she had fulfilled her callings with the same dedication to serving the Lord. She wrote to me that she loved being a primary teacher and that the kids teased her about her accent all the time. She had also been called as a singles representative and was going to use her experiences in the 1st ward and Pierside ward to help her in that calling.
Over the course of the last four months of living in Australia she had struggled with living so far away from home. She often wrote about how hard it was to go to school and to afford life in Australia, so she found comfort in blessings from Priesthood holders. She called on her friend Ian and her home teacher when she needed comfort. Once she wrote an email in which she concluded that the Lord wanted her in Australia. She didn’t know why but the blessing she received told to stop asking why because, “the Lord has given me a great opportunity”. The Lord’s purpose in having Liz follow her heart and testimony to Australia is known only to Him, but I feel comfort in knowing that Liz fully believed in her dreams and had the strength to follow them.
Because of Liz’s characteristics of a strong testimony of Christ and an enthusiasm for living her life she has been an example of a true friend. For example, Liz would sacrifice her own time to help a friend. Many times a friend needed her listening ear and she would walk with them to the pier and back to just listen. Other times, she stayed on the phone to talk with a friend who needed a clear voice on relationships or on church doctrine issues. Liz gave her time to people to help them find their own true voice. In another instance, Liz was a great friend because she was aware of people’s needs without their outwardly asking her for help. One of her quintessential character traits is the quote notes that she left for people cards. I found one in my scriptures last week. It was a quote from Henry B. Eyring that she had written on a note card and placed on my bed when I was really sick last year. I kept the note has a bookmark in my Book of Mormon ever since then and have been used to seeing it and had forgotten it’s contents. Inside, Liz wrote a quote about friendship, “All of us will be tested. And all of us need true friends to love us, to listen to us, to show us the way, and to testify of truth to us.” I look back on this quote and realize that Liz was that person to me. I am so thankful for her friendship during years when the Lord knew that I needed Liz, even if I didn’t realize it myself. I think of the scripture in Mosiah when crowds of people were waiting to be baptized and to take upon them the name of Christ. Liz embodied the qualities of a true believer of Christ, Mosiah 18:8-9 “ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn, yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God, at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life.”
Liz was that person who was comforting to others and stood as a witness of God in America and Australia. The emails and skype sessions that I had with Liz were still just as gossipy as those that we shared when we were roommates. They were just as focused on our own paths towards following the Lord’s will as they were about the day-to-day events in life. In May she sent me an email in which she expressed her gratitude for her patriarchal blessing which guided her towards traveling. She also talked about another blessing she received in which she was questioning her reason for being in Australia, again. This time she was grateful for the angels that she felt around her that were both physical and spiritual angels in her life. She knew that the Lord had a plan for her and she was desirous to fulfill that plan. Liz’s life in Australia was a dream come true for her. She met more people who were placed in her path for a blessing in her life and vice versa. I have been talking, emailing and skyping with Chris and Ian who Liz first met when we moved into apt#6 and whom she had grown close to in Australia. Also, she met a new friend named Alicia who immediately recognized Liz’s value as a friend and confidant. The three of them have expressed to me their honor in being able to know Liz. They each asked me to share a few thoughts as Liz’s friends from down-under. Alicia wanted everyone to know that even though they were friends for a short time and she didn’t even get a picture together, Liz will forever be in her heart. She went to the Sydney temple on Saturday and focused on the eternal plan for all of us, especially praying for comfort after loosing Liz. Alicia also wants us to know that Liz was never alone in the hospital. There were members of her ward in the ICU and Alicia or Ian was always with her. My cousin Chris also traveled to Brisbane to be with Liz in the hospital. He was tender as he talked of the blessing he felt to be involved in helping Liz to become an organ donor. In fact, he now is on a crusade to find other people who will be as selfless as Liz in giving life to others, in deed giving her all. When I talk with Ian I feel more at peace about Liz’s passion for life and her desire to fulfill her dreams. Ian told me that Liz had planned to visit the temple the next week and that she wanted to travel to new places in Australia to see what they were like. In fact, she had researched to see where Jack Johnson lived so that she could hang out near the beach by his house and perhaps see or talk to him about his environmental work, which went along with her eco-tourism studies. Ian has been strengthening me as we both grieve for the tender loss of Liz in our lives. Last night he wrote me and suggested that I read the book, Life Everlasting – A Definitive Study of Life After Death. He said Liz borrowed the book in February and read parts of it, but he doesn’t know which parts. He sends his condolences to all and as Liz’s friend I join him in expressing my sorrow at our loss of truly a great friend.
In all, Liz met amazing people in her life. She followed her dreams and loved to help others find their own path. Regrettably, she never met Jack Johnson, a musician that she admired and adored. In fact, her last email to me quoted lyrics from Jack Johnson. Her choice of lyrics was poignant because they refer to living in the clouds and leaving this patient world. I would do anything for Liz and I gathered with 73 of her friends at the Huntington Beach Pier to give our respects to her, and her family. In her honor, Liz’s friends have gathered together to celebrate Liz’s life and to make one last dream of hers come true. A few days ago, while traveling for his concert in Germany, Jack Johnson signed a picture of the lyrics that Liz wrote in that last email. When he heard Liz’s story of living her dreams and listening to his music when she passed away he wrote, “The world’s loss is heaven’s gain” and signed a note for Liz’s family. I hope this last friend that Liz has made, a friend in Jack Johnson, will be a tribute to her memory by inspiring us to reach for our dreams.
Tree
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The last Christmas tree I purchased was in 1995. I bought a tiny $40 tree
in Hawaii to help me celebrate Christmas with my family. Instead of lasting
for ...
16 years ago