My heart got just a bit weaker when I heard the news about Jen being sick and it broke when I learned she passed. Women like Jen (tough women) aren’t supposed to get sick. Especially when we still had “time” to get together in the future and catch up on so much of the past.

Jen and I became friends at the tail-end of high school. We shared a passion for journalism class and our teacher, the late Mrs. Putarek. Jennifer wrote, and I created. We were a dynamo team. In the next few years, we would share laughs and movie/shopping dates, sleepovers and high school graduation, a very eventful road trip to Myrtle Beach in her classic tan Chevette, a Madonna concert (dressed in our Material Girl finest), many Christmas Eve’s together with my family, and then, each other’s college graduations.

I met Stephen once following college, and I knew from that moment, she had found “the one.” I also knew Jen wouldn’t come home to Springfield Twp. again. The world was her oyster and she had found her pearl.

Time and distance has a way of pulling people apart for awhile, but when I saw Jen pop up on my Facebook friend suggestion, I immediately texted her. I so wanted to see her again when she came into town. She agreed-we’d make it happen-eventually.

We never did make that meeting happen, and it grieves my heart. Stephen, you had one of THE BEST, and I know you know that. I have prayed for you both and I will continue to pray for you as you journey forward with her now in your heart.

I hope I get to see my friend again one day in her mint-condition Chevy, listening to Rick Springfield or Madonna. Until then, Jen…love you.

[Submitted by Liz (Younger) Weingart]

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