Yesterday Anna and I had the opportunity to do a news story about Liz, the fire that took her life, and our lives since that day.
The main focus was to alert current students who are just moving into off-campus housing.
Getting them to realize and take seriously their own personal safety is a tough sell.
But all we can do is keeping repeating it at every opportunity.
Here is a link to our story:
When someone you love dies, you yearn to keep their memory alive for as many people you can and for as long as you can. I am continually amazed at how this continues to happen as we inch closer to the six year anniversary of Liz’s death.
Last night at our county fair, the biggest and best county fair in the state, it happened again. For the second year, the Alumni Cheer Team performed a stunting routine in memory of Liz. Fair Square Park was filled to capacity with people taking in the last few hours of the fair. The girls wore shirts with IN MEMORY OF LIZ WENCL emblazed on the back. Before they performed they talked about Liz and her love of cheerleading.
I’m so incredibly grateful to these girls. To think that some of them have been out of school for eight years now, and they still take the time to do something so special. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
But something else happened last night – something totally unexpected.
I got to hear another story of Liz’s continued connection to her friends.
As we waited for the cheerleading exposition to begin we were sitting next to one of Liz’s closest high school friends. I had just learned that she was engaged and I congratulated her on her beautiful ring and wedding plans.
She said, “oh, I just have to tell you what happened.”
She went on to say that she had absolutely no idea a proposal was coming when her boyfriend asked her to go for a walk so he could show her this “really big deer” he had seen.
They began to walk and a monarch butterfly appeared and flitted around them. It was the first monarch she had seen all summer and it immediately brought Liz to her mind. A few minutes later, her boyfriend popped the question and presented her with a beautiful diamond ring.
She told me she knew that when the butterfly arrived, it was Liz’s way of letting her know she was present and aware of the happiness that had just taken place.
It made me smile to hear, and again I just shake my head because Liz’s friends really “get it.” A lone butterfly could have been completely ignored … instead it did exactly what it was intended to do.
Way to go Liz!!
For most of these past six years, I have known that the experiences I have had were not just for me. They were meant to be shared.
Today I took another step in making that a reality.
My story of “The French Lesson” was published in the Sept/Oct issue of Angels on Earth magazine.
Liz’s picture and story will be read by countless people now and I am so incredibly grateful to God for making it happen.
My plans have just been finalized and I am thrilled to be in Washington DC from September 16-20 as part of Campus Firewatch.
I have joined forces with CFW headed by an angel named Ed Comeau. Along with other parents across the country who have lost a college-aged child to fire, we support Ed’s efforts to educate students, colleges, landlords, and the public on fire safety and prevention.
Our goal is to get all 50 states to declare September as “National Campus Fire Safety Awareness Month.” To date, we have 14 states who have done so. We will be on Capitol Hill on September 17th as part of this effort.
I can’t think of a better place to be – it is yet another way I can honor my precious Elizabeth and for that I am so very grateful and happy.
To learn more about the work of Campus Firewatch, please check out the website at:
http://campus-firewatch.com/spokesperson.html
We each have opportunities and choices given to us each and every day. We have the ability and free will to ignore them or to use them.
The sixth anniversary of Liz’s death will be here in about six weeks. My intention is always to find a way to honor her in some way as each anniversary comes and goes.
I never know how I will honor her. However, I haven’t had to think too hard because many wonderful opportunites just seem to present themselves about this time each year.
Last year I was able to send some words of advice via email to the parents of current U of M students moving into off-campus housing. That gelled into more opportunities to create a flyer to hand out at a picnic for U of M students on 9-20-03 at Van Cleve park, just across the street from Liz’s house. I also was given the opportunity to do a TV segment to mark the fifth anniversary of the fire and note the progress made in making off-campus housing safer for today’s students.
This year, once again, the opportunites are beginning to present themselves to me.
Liz was an avid cheerleader in high school. I learned last week that for the second year in a row, the alumni cheer team will perform at our county fair in memory of Liz.
In September, a story I wrote about Liz will be published in Angels on Earth magazine.
Today I was contacted by a local TV station and asked to do another news piece on fire safety. The story will air during the first week of classes at the U of M.
There are no words to express my gratitude for these opportunities to make a difference AND to remember my girl.
I’d like to think, and I am confident, that Liz is playing an integral part in pulling it all together and making it happen.
We are a team and together we make a difference. And that, makes life worth living.
Welcome to my blog about love, life and transformation!
Kim
LOVE LIVES ON 