The Best of All of Us – Princess Jennifer

Perfecting the pose!

Each of us remembers the first day we met her – our very own princess. During introductions, she would quickly share with us, that she is not only “Jennifer”, but she’s known as “Princess Jennifer”. She even had the princess wave perfected and would take time to teach it to everyone. Princess Jennifer, or fondly called PJ by some of her dear friends at the Playhouse, was an incredible friend to all of us. Our hearts are heavy as she passed away on December 22nd. As you can tell by the pictures, she loved coming to GiGi’s and she loved having fun with her friends! Princess Jennifer’s favorites were her book club crew, Project Pulse peeps and every opportunity to dance and sing on stage at Fantastic Friends! She also loved coming to every New Year’s Eve Party and leading the conga line! She sure enjoyed having Mary come for visits and jam out (Elvis was always a favorite!) or create art together.

Her warm kindness would always fill the Playhouse, as did her quick wit and ability to make us all laugh. Her joy for life made us all better people. How blessed are we to have had a princess – *the* princess – become our friend many years ago.

Her book club friends, Annette and Julie, share about Princess Jennifer:

Princess Jennifer was a shining light to our weekly Book Club sessions.  She had a serious manner about Book Club and didn’t tolerate many shenanigans by the other participants. However, if Jennifer was in a silly mood, she would insert Julie’s name into the story as the female lead, which would make her laugh out loud for several minutes!

Princess Jennifer loved books that were romantic and always made the BEST book choices! Jennifer was one of our best readers and she would wait for silence from the group before she would begin her turn. She would oftentimes read more than one page; only because she was SO into the story that she’d just love to keep reading!!

Jennifer would “help” other readers by calling out the correct annunciation of words if errors were misspoken. Much to the chagrin of others. She was being a teacher more than a critic, I’m sure.

Whenever we had a guest observer at Book Club, we’d all introduce ourselves. It was always a joy for  Jennifer’s turn; as she’d state with such regal pride that her name is “Princess Jennifer” and wouldn’t respond to the visitors unless they addressed her as such.

My favorite thing about her was her contagious laughter! Jennifer’s laugh would set us all into a giggle fest. Annie, Julie and I would be in tears, laughing right along with her!  Jennifer was such a beautiful, (& fun loving) presence in my life and in my heart. My love for her is truly one of a kind and I will love her forever.

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