Tara Lise Kennedy
October 21, 1983 - December 31, 2010
Though her smile is gone forever
And her hand we cannot touch,
Still we have to many memories,
Of the Tara we loved so much.
Her memory is our keepsake,
With which we'll never part;
God has her in His keeping,
We have her in our heart.
-from the visitation pamphlet
God Bless the World
Mighty God, Father of all,
Compassionate God, Mother of all,
less every person I have met,
Every face I have seen,
Every voice I have heard,
Especially those most dear;
Bless every city, town, and street that I have known,
Bless every sight I have seen,
Every object I have touched.
In some mysterious way these have all fashioned my life.
All that I am, I have received.
Great God, bless the world.
-John J. Morris SJ
The Story of Tara and I
Thanks to the Guelph Recreation and Parks, both Tara and I were happy little lifeguards working for the city as teenagers. I met Tara through some of my friends and we hit it off just fine. We attended many fun gatherings, parties, and festivities. Tara was literally the sunshine everywhere we went.
It still makes me smile to think back to all the funny things we got up to both at the pool and on our spare time. I remember Tara being the planner and always places to be and peoples to see. I was quite sad to see her move away from Guelph when she started university. I thought I would never see her again.
Then a year went by and I too was moving away from Guelph and started university at Western. As the school was a privately owned property, the city snow plows would not even step 2 inches near the campus walking paths. This created awful walking conditions for over 50 000 student bodies. Try walking in 5 meters of snow each and every day. DREADFUL! Until one day I hear: RENATA! I look out from my parka, just for a peak and sure enough it was SunnyOctober herself standing in front of me, smiles ear to ear!
From that day on, I was happy to be walking through campus because I knew somewhere in the crowds Tara was waiting for me as I was scrambling to my next class and ready to pounce on just for a HELLO! We always made sure to catch up as we walk by each other, and in London too we made it our mission to repeat some of our fun festivities similar to our Guelph-outings.
Once our paths separated yet again I truly didn't think I would see Tara, but I had this feeling that somewhere, anywhere on this earth, she would jump out and give me one big hug like before. Well, I was right about meeting her but very saddened to meet her in these circumstances. Her mothers standing tall and strong in the visitation hall, and saying thank yous and goodbyes from all of those who Tara has touched so deep. I too was standing in that line. And I don't know if I should feel bad about not looking sad that day....but I smiled in the line the whole way through. Myself and 2 friends were talking about all the fun things we used to do together with Tara and while waiting in that line we also took a long trip down memory lane.
Until we left the hall. My friend Jess invited us over for tea. We kept talking about the good old times and then she said this to me: "So when do you think this will become true? When we will it become real? That's she's gone?"
...and that's when it hit me. I drove home, and cried. Gosh Tara, you always surprised me but I never imagined this would come next.
I think I'm ready now to say goodbye. Thank you for being the sunshine amongst my memories. Even at such difficult times, thinking of you still puts a smile on my face. It's been a pleasure to have met you and thank you for being part of my memories. I will never forget you.
My dear SunnyOctober,
You rest in peace up above and bless the heavens with your presence the same way you have made the earth oh so beautiful while you were with us.
We will never forget you.
Love,
Jessica, Melissa, Tiffany, Karissa, Sarah, Renata :-)
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