4/15/1979 - 8/26/2007
This site was created by Lisa's sister, Amy, as a place for friends and family to leave comments and stories in honor of Lisa. We encourage you to leave any stories, comments, and photos of Lisa that you may have.
She will be forever missed.
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Growing up, Lisa & I had a love-hate relationship, as most siblings do. We fought like sisters, and made up like friends. In general, however, we were always pretty good together.
She was always a goofy-looking, awkward little girl. Big coke-bottle glasses, buck teeth from sucking her thumb for so many years, and a little extra baby pudge that stayed with her into high school. Mom says she sucked her thumb from Day 1. At some point, she received a teddy bear with a silk ribbon around its neck, which became her "thumb-sucking bear." For years, she would rub the silky ribbon with one hand while sucking her thumb on the opposite hand (that bear went through several ribbons obviously). I don't remember how old she was when Mom finally took away the teddy bear to try to break her of the thumb-sucking habit. It worked though. Then on Lisa's 18th birthday, Mom wrapped up the teddy bear and gave it to her as a gift. Even I got teary eyed with that one.
It was high school when Lisa & I started becoming especially close. She was a freshman while I was a senior, so we had one year together in the same school. At some point during high school, Lisa shed the glasses, wore braces to straighten her teeth, and dropped the baby pudge. By her senior year, she had become more beautiful than I could ever hope to be. After I'd gone on to college, I would go back to Mason to visit her on a regular basis all the way up until she graduated in 1997.
After she graduated high school, Lisa moved to Mt. Pleasant where she & I shared an apartment together for one year (my senior year of college). I've always maintained that she was the best roommate I had in four years of college. I LOVED living with her. We could have a fight, then turn around and order a pizza. It was just how we worked. We never worried about whose pop was in the fridge or whose money was sitting on the table. It was all just "ours."
In May 1998, Lisa moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Mom & I drove her down with all her belongings, and on the way back to Michigan, sans Lisa, Mom & I talked about how we weren't going to cry because we were going to see her again the following month. I cried when I got home anyway.
In January 2000, my then-husband and I moved to Nashville ourselves. We shared an apartment with Lisa for about six-months, after which she moved into a house and my husband and I leased our own apartment. I learned I was more of a homebody, though, and as much as I loved being so close to Lisa again, I didn't like living in Nashville, so my husband and I moved back to Michigan in December 2000.
During the 9-1/2 years Lisa lived in Nashville, she attended school at Middle Tennessee State University and Nashville State Technical Institute (the local community college). She had originally planned to become a math teacher, but eventually changed her mind and was working toward a degree in accounting.
She worked construction for several years -- I was so proud of her for this. She knew how to play with the big boys, but she was still very much a girl. A girl guy's love! At some point, she secured a job with the State of Tennessee in the accounting department where she worked for probably 2-3 years (I can't remember), but in early 2007, she went back to construction for financial reasons.
Sometime during 2006, Lisa met and became friends with David. Their friendship blossomed into a relationship. She died four days before she was to leave for Hawaii to meet him, where he was completing his two-week military reserve training. During that trip, David was going to propose to her -- she would've said yes for sure! She loved that man like no other.
In early 2007, Lisa learned she was going to become an aunt, as Dan & I were having a baby. For some reason, she wanted a nephew in the worst way! I remember calling her in mid-March when we found out that we were, indeed, having a boy. When I told her she was having a nephew, she nearly came through the phone to kiss me. She spoiled our unborn son all the way up until the day she died.
Lisa last visited Michigan in August 2007. She was in charge of games for my baby shower and she did a great job!! Social girl she is, she really enjoyed taking charge and making sure everyone had fun. I know I did. And because we ran out of time for one of the games, I now have about 18 jars of baby applesauce waiting for Sean to be able to enjoy them.
As much as Lisa loved her family in Michigan, she really enjoyed living in Nashville. She worked, she played, she socialized. She had some great moments, and some not-so-great moments while living there. But her spirit was never truly broken -- she always came out on the other side of anything. Our family constantly tried to convince Lisa to move back to Michigan, but she was too happy and comfortable in Nashville to return home. As a matter of fact, in Nashville, Lisa was home.
I was so blessed to have had 28-years with her. I know it sounds cliche, but there are no other words to say that Lisa was not just my sister, but she was truly my very best friend.
Lisa and I have been friends since 7th grade, which I guess would have made the year 1992. She and I met through Amber, and it didn't take long for the three of us to become referred to as "The Three Musketeers." The three of us were always together, before school, on the bus, at lunch, after school...you get the picture I'm sure. Most weekends were spent at eachothers houses or various members of our families who were willing to have us. I remember staying over at Aunt Janet's watching Steven King's "IT" sucking down Mrs. Grass's chicken noodle soup and copius amounts of Mt Dew. There were one or two summers spent at my Grandparents cabin up at Higgin's Lake, of course there were a few stay overs at Lisa's Grandparents, many weekends at Bob and Jackie's trailer in the Delhi park, and countless nights spent at Amber's trailer and the house on Holt St in Mason.
Lisa and I made it through driver's ed and a year and a semester of High school together before I moved to Ashland City with my parents. Lisa was one of the few people who kept close contact with me after I had moved, and she eventually came down to live with me.
It became aparent after one week of living together that she and I had really grown up and apart over the past 3 years, I barely recognized her, and she had no idea what to think of me. 3 months later I moved back to Michigan, but true to Lisa's form, she stuck it out for the long haul, and I couldn't admire or respect her more for that decision.
Obviously, because I had ditched her in Tennessee she wasn't happy with me for quite some time (and rightly so), its for this reason that the details of the six years where we had hardly any contact are something I know little about but I am sure Amy can fill you in on them.
I was working at the University of Florida, and living with Amber in Gainesville when we recieved the most exciting email of our lives...It was December 22 2005. Our missing Musketeer!! I almost fell out of my chair as I screamed in my quiet little office, "Oh my Gosh it's Lisa!!! I've got to call Amber!!!" Immediatly I grabbed my cellphone, totally unconcerned with the consequences of using it while still on the clock, "Am, quick, what are you doing?! Are you home!? Good, go to the computer, and log on to Myspace...no I can't tell you, you have to see it to believe it, you will never in a million years guess who sent us a message...no its not Joe Allen...just check your inbox Am, you will not be disappointed..." And as she did so, I held the phone a foot away from ear as she screamed with the same amount of glee as me, "OH MY GOSH!! IT'S LISA!!! AAAAAHHHHHH!! Holy Crap!! This is AWESOME!!!" To say that we were excited was quite the understatement, but that was just a testiment to the impact Lisa had had on our lives. The three of us hadn't spoken in a little over six years, but she was a constant in our lives, we always thought of her, wondered about her, in truth it was like Lisa had never left, her presence was forever with us. When I got home from work that evening I found Amber in her LazyBoy with the biggest grin I'd seen in awhile, and her phone glued to her ear, "Guess who I'm talking to?" Without hesitation my face lit up with the same ear to ear grin, "Guess what, its my turn to talk to Lisa."
January 2 2006, is a Red Letter Day. Lisa, Amber, and I were together for the first time in years. All day as we walked around Univeral Studios, it was as if we were 15 again. There was nothing but joy and laughter all around. We rode first car on every rollercoaster ride, we pointed out hot guys all day, and the three of us were exactly as we had remembered, bright, shining and carefree.
Lisa was still the daredevil, she and I took one look at the Sling Shot Ride, and knew it was now or never. It was 6 G's of force, 425 ft in the air, and we rode it in the middle of the night. I will never forget the look of pure joy on Lisa's face, and the almost shed tears as we shouted how great we thought it was that we got to experience swinging through the air together.
This moment was relived a few months later when Lisa and I went skydiving. The date was June 3 2006. There aren't words enough to describe the thrill of jumping out of plane 13,500 ft with your best friend, just check out the posted pictures of Lisa and you'll have all the description you'll need.
Lisa is the only person I know who can take a simple vacation in Central America and turn it into the an epic adventure. We'd only be in country for 48 hrs when our kidney's had been threatned by an angry German and she'd been robbed, not to mention the hassle of even getting our room that she had reserved ahead of time, only the girl had no idea what we were talking about, and our translator wasn't getting our point across, and that doesn't even cover the ordeal we went through at the Miami airport, Lisa almost didn't make it out of that forsaken place. Aren't you exhausted just reading about it!? Try living it for 6 weeks!! But seriously, I wouldn't trade one second of this trip, and I would never, ever have wanted to do it with anyone but Lisa.
She and I explored the jungle and Mayan Ruins of Tikal Guatemala, Traci opted for the paid tour, Lisa and I winged it, which of course ment we got lost two minutes into the deal, and we spent the rest of the day going opposite of everyone else in the National Park. You may think I'm exaggerating, but I assure you, I am not, and we both agreed that our way was much better. Lisa, Traci, and I did the Canopy Tour of Tikal, which is basically swinging through the tops of trees like Tarzan. We were given gloves, a harness, and then we zipped across cables from tree to tree screaming with glee!
Our next big adventure was the active Volcano Pacaya. It had erupted just 7 days prior to our climb, so there was still lava flowing in some areas. Lisa and I almost gave up two minutes into the deal, our calves we burning, we were wheezing, and the Fifty something couple from our tour was exhausting us further as they pretty much jogged up the volcano like it was something they did everyday...for fun. Lisa was infuriating and hysterical as she kept repeating, "I can't believe it's strait up, like the path never levels off, I really can't believe it's strait up all the way..." Finally I gasped, "That's why they call it climbing Lis," she looked at me with a "I'm not stupid" type squint, and said, "Yeah, but really, strait up, the whole way? I need a cigarette, let's stop right quick." Eventually Lisa and I found ourselves on our own again, we'd gotten caught up in the altitude and how sharp and contrasting the colors were. We were surrouned by charcoal blacks and brilliant emerald greens...and then we came to an impass. We could see people off in the distance, but we couldn't see a sure path to the top of the volcano, where they all were. You see there was something obstrucing the path...a field of molten lava. She and I stood there waying the pros and cons of our next brilliant move...we really wanted to see the top of the volcano, but we still weren't convinced that crossing this steaming field was how they got there, BUT we didn't see any other way either...another group came upon us at this point, and pretty much came to the same conclusion, the only way to get from point A to point B was across the lava, Lisa and I had our hands poised over the lava, and were about to push ourselves up on the lava when there were shouts and whistles coming from all around us. Our guide and Traci had caught up and were behind us, and about ten workers were gesturing from some trees in the distance...every single one of them was pointing to the path that we had lost. Lisa and I couldn't help but laugh, we had almost set ourselves on fire just to get to the top of the volcano. There is a picture that captures a thousand words of Lisa and I conquering Pacaya, so I'm not even going to try describe it, I wouldn't do it justice.
Our next escapade came in Semuc Champey. We explored and climbed our way through a dark cave in our bathing suits armed with a wax candle and a flashlight. There were moments of total darkness, and grunts of terror as we made our way across rope bridges and incredibly flimsy ladders that were held together by old rope and black electric tape. Lisa evermore gusty than I, climbed ten feet up the wall of the cave and jumped into a pool that coulndn't have been more than seven feet in diameter. She cut her foot on a rock and called me a wuss for not following suit. It was much to her surprise then later when I joined Lisa on the edge of the 40 ft bridge to jump off into the River Cahabon. This was such a rush and thrill that we did it twice.
There were so many other moments in this trip, our jaunt in a rental across most of Belize (I do believe we only missed one, small and minute corner of the map), getting the car gassed up and delievered by the mayor of Punta Gorda, meeting Ron, our most gracious host and owner of Popeye's in Caye Caulker on the boat shuttle to Punta Gorda, the Belize Zoo, a night spent in a tree house, Jurassic Park sized plants and shrubs, Scuba school in Utila Honduras, getting dropped off at the border of Guatemala and Honduras and left to wait for a bus we weren't quite positive was actually going to show up...
Life with Lisa was never dull or boring, and I will cherish this adventure with my best friend for the remainder of my days. There won't be a day that goes by that I won't miss her, but if I learned anything from Lisa, its this, to live in the moment, and fill your days with the ones you adore, & love what you do with that time.
The memory of our first meeting is so clearly printed on my mind, Lisa was sitting on Dawn Nillson's bed playing a Super Nintendo racing game, her fluffy hair was pulled back in a banana clip, she didn't have contacts yet, so her blue eyes were huge as they looked at me through the lenses of her glasses, and she was wearing a purple shirt and black shorts. We didn't like each other at first, and then for what ever reason, Lisa was my very best friend. Even when she transformed into the beautiful woman we all know and love, I remember her this way, a clumsy girl with the wheeziest, infectious laugh I'd ever heard. That gorgeous girl changed my life.
If I had never met Lisa, I would never have seen the jungles of Tikal from a harness and a zip line, I wouldn't have climbed an active volcano, I wouldn't have jumped out of a plane from 13,000 feet, nor would I have sung every word of every song from the Lion King terribly outside of Mr. Ware's driver's ed class. If I had never known Lisa I wouldn't be the only person I know who can watch the last scene from Friday the 13th and laugh hysterically instead of being scared out of my wits. We were at one of many slumber parties at Amber's house and that particular scene sent Lisa right into orbit the first time she saw it, and it really didn't help matters any when Am's dad spent the rest of the evening jumping out of closets, and grabbing ankle's as we ventured down stairs to get some snacks. Life with Lisa was never dull, or boring, and for this I have a precious memory for any and every occasion.
Her smile didn't just light up a room, it exploded through it. The pearly whites, those deep dimples, the twinkling of her baby blues, and when it was aimed at you, you couldn't help but answer with one of your own, even if you were madder than heck at her. Lisa had this habit of always wanting the last word, and this became a contest between us, she usually won of course, because she had this way of saying something in a way that you couldn't beat…well my Mom was driving us up to my Grandpa's cabin, and Lisa and I were doing our typical debate, it was pretty late and rather dark in the car, so when Lis stumped me, I didn't just see her smile, I heard it. And in all my years and travels, her smile is still the only one I've ever known so well I could hear it from a mile away.
Lis, Am and I all saw the movie Casper together, we ignored the looks and snickers as the three of us danced and sang through the ending credits. But before all of this there was a song that Lisa decided was "our song," it's Remember Me This Way, every word of it rings true, but the line that hits me the hardest now is "I know you can't stay, a part of you will never, ever go away, your heart will stay." Lisa's friendship and presence in my life is the Greatest gift God ever bestowed upon me, I'll treasure it always. I know that as long as I dance, sing, smile and seize every adventure that comes my way, she'll be right there, beside me every step of the way.
Lisa was preceded in death by her paternal grandfather, Robert. She is survived by her mother Sue, her father & stepmother Robert & Jackie, sister and brother-in-law Amy & Dan, nephew Sean, maternal grandparents Bill & Doris, paternal grandmother Helen, and aunts & uncles: Becky & Bill, Sue & Bob, Janet, and Bill & Jean, along with several cousins. She is also survived by her fiance, David.
Dan & I were sharing a Mt. Dew today and when I opened it, I took a sip before passing it to him. It made me think of Lisa. She was always willing to share her food or beverage, but she always HAD to have the first bite/sip. It was hysterical because it completely threw her off if someone took the first drink of her beverage or bite of her food before she did.
i would like to apolegize for my poor english, it is not my native language, but I found out about Lisa a week ago, and I felt i had to write my memories. Nellie, as being such a good friend, im sure that you wouldnt mind if I will talk mostly about Lisa.
I met Lisa and Nellie in 2006, after 7 month of being abroad from home- israel. At this point I just wanted to travel by myself, to have some peace and quite. I got a bad in a hostel in Antigua, and after few minutes, Lisa and Nellie, or as i used to call them Nellie and Kellie, came in. It didnt took me a long time to find out that Im not going to stay here alone. They were so nice, careing and they made me laugh so much, that I just wanted to stay and travel with them.
As the days passed, I found myself haveing long conversations about almost everything: life, religion, relationship... Lisa had the best combination of being fun, funny and a person that you have deep conversations about everything! she knew how to listen, and knew what to say back to make you feel good.In short- a great friend!(even to what you may call a stranger) She was so friendly, that the 3 of us had a really good conection (atleast I felt it) right from the start, and after few days, I knew alot about her life, her coices, the good and the bad, her family and friends, which she really loved.
I remembered how i loved the way she was really a live to me, in the sense of when she laughed, she really laughd with all her heart. when she saw unjustice, she was really mad with all her soul. Life has its ironical ways...
As the time passed, and we all went back to our "real life", i found myself thinking alot about my Nellie and Kellie. It is amazing how the people you meet for such a short time could make such an impact on you. I guess that is the way she was unforgetable.
Yael
i would like to apolegize for my poor english, it is not my native language, but I found out about Lisa a week ago, and I felt i had to write my memories. Nellie, as being such a good friend, im sure that you wouldnt mind if I will talk mostly about Lisa.
I met Lisa and Nellie in 2006, after 7 month of being abroad from home- israel. At this point I just wanted to travel by myself, to have some peace and quite. I got a bad in a hostel in Antigua, and after few minutes, Lisa and Nellie, or as i used to call them Nellie and Kellie, came in. It didnt took me a long time to find out that Im not going to stay here alone. They were so nice, careing and they made me laugh so much, that I just wanted to stay and travel with them.
As the days passed, I found myself haveing long conversations about almost everything: life, religion, relationship... Lisa had the best combination of being fun, funny and a person that you have deep conversations about everything! she knew how to listen, and knew what to say back to make you feel good.In short- a great friend!(even to what you may call a stranger) She was so friendly, that the 3 of us had a really good conection (atleast I felt it) right from the start, and after few days, I knew alot about her life, her coices, the good and the bad, her family and friends, which she really loved.
I remembered how i loved the way she was really a live to me, in the sense of when she laughed, she really laughd with all her heart. when she saw unjustice, she was really mad with all her soul. Life has its ironical ways...
As the time passed, and we all went back to our "real life", i found myself thinking alot about my Nellie and Kellie. It is amazing how the people you meet for such a short time could make such an impact on you. I guess that is the way she was unforgetable.
Yael