Memories of…Jenny!

Jenny is the Christmas baby in our house. I remember quite clearly that when she was born, the tree was up, her stocking was sitting on Mom’s sewing table waiting to have a name placed on it, and there were gifts under the tree for a baby we didn’t know much about. I was eleven years old, a couple of months from turning twelve, and artistic Katey was nine. Together we were just old enough to use a hot glue gun by ourselves and – probably – get into all kinds of mischief as we discovered making hairbows, ornaments and I can’t remember what all. I just remember we had come across this shiny blue garland like stuff that seemed ridiculous to use in wrapping or decorating, but it sure did make nice hairbows. Each of us girls had one to wear to visit our new sister in the hospital.  I think we even brought Jenny a small one, although she certainly didn’t have enough hair to hold it in!

That soon changed. Jenny’s hair came in a light red/auburn color and it came in thick and heavy. She’s still sensitive about the fountain-like pony tails sitting on top of her head that Mom put it in to keep it out of her face that. We jokingly called her “Pebbles”. All that hair despite Abby attempting to steal it by pulling chunks of it out for no apparent reason. (They sat next to each other in their carseats in the van until Mom moved Jenny and saved her from a lifetime of baldness. For no reason at all, Abby would reach over and gleefully pull out chunks of Jenny’s hair, leaving poor Jenny in tears – and probably in need of therapy.)

Growing up, Jenny always loved music. Before she possessed her toy piano, she would pull the stool over to the windowsill and “play” her windowsill “piano”. She loved to cut paper. If Jenny had a pair of scissors in hand, no piece of paper was safe from being turned into confetti. Born at ten pounds and nine ounces, Jenny has always been the tallest and biggest of us girls yet she was the one who wished to be a ballerina. Jenny always had a huge imagination, attached to easy forgetfulness. She so often seemed to live in her own little world, yet Jenny is the one who taught herself to ride a bike, tie her shoe and sew doll clothes.

Music and sewing are Jenny’s passions. Anytime of day or night, you can hear piano music at my parent’s house or the sewing machine vibrating through the walls and floor. She is always at work on some project, sometimes for herself but just as often for someone else. Jenny would give you the shirt off her back and kept the little girls at church supplied with enough clothes for their dolls to last a lifetime or two.

And now she is 25 years old…where have those years gone?

Happy Birthday, Jenny!