MY TRIBUTE TO MY DEAR FRIEND PENNY

As I sat in a session in the Bogotá, Colombian Temple yesterday and during the past three days working with the missionaries in the CCM, my mind constantly kept going back to Penny. I have laughed and cried as I have thought about my experiences with her over all these past years and my deep love her for. I cried myself to sleep and then woke up in the wee hours of the morning and repeated the same thing over again. Then my heart was comforted when I thought of how wonderful it must have been for a mother and daughter to once again hold each other in their arms in that joyous reunion of pure love. That would have been a glorious sight to have witnessed.

I have reflected on how much I truly love Penny and how much I will miss her. I wish that I could have told her all of these things when I talked to her on the phone on Tuesday but I was so overcome with emotion of knowing that would be the last time that I would speak to her that I just couldn't tell her all of the feelings that were in my heart but I think that she already knew them. What a choice person she was and what a profound influence she has had on my life over these many years. I have truly been blessed because during one's life it is unusual to have a friend like Penny enter it and bless it by just being her radiant self.

I can't think about Penny without seeing her electric smile and hearing her laughs and giggles. I will miss that but I have stored those sounds in my memory bank and so there they will live forever. She had the ability to always make a person feel important and make them feel that they were her best friend. I never had a doubt but that she loved me. She was always willing to listen when I needed to talk and always had great insight into the problems that were concerning me. She accepted me for whom I was and didn't judge me when I was having a bad day. She was a sister to me in every sense of the word…a sister as much or sometimes more than my biological sisters. I truly treasure my sweet, cherished memories of Penny….or as she was referred to in our family…."SISTUR CHAIRWEE".

Together Penny and I have shared laughter, appreciated the beauties of this world, enjoyed peaceful-quiet moments, shed tears, worried and stressed over our families, had many discussions about the Gospel, felt the Spirit testify to us and have known that our Heavenly Father loved each of us and watched over us and our families. We have shared thoughts and feelings of the rich blessings that we had because of the men that we married…their love for us and our families and for the priesthood that they hold. We have been fortunate to have had husbands that were servants of the Lord and because of that they have blessed our lives and the lives of our children. We both love the Gospel with all of our hearts and were willing to serve in whatever position we were called to. In this life we have indeed been blessed women and because of the Gospel we have been rich women!

Steve, yours and Penny's marriage is a love story, an eternal love story. She adored you and you her. Your attention to her in these past months has been absolutely wonderful and endearing. Penny loved her children deeply and fiercely and was so happy that they married wonderful mates. She loves her sons-in-laws and her daughters-in-laws. I didn't think that she was ever going to live to see her grandchildren but she was fortunate to get to know 10 darling grandchildren. Their lives will be rich when they are told stories of their Grandma Penny.

Penny had great compassion for people and was always doing something to brighten another's day. The scripture, "When you are in the service of your fellowmen, you are in the service of me" certainly applied to her. She had a great desire to keep the commandments and do what her Heavenly Father had asked of her even when it was difficult for her. I also know that she was very appreciative of the love and service that was rendered to her and her family in her times of need.

There was a story that Penny loved of when her family first moved into the Cambrian Park Ward. She and Steve were at a Ward Party and Penny was getting some refreshments. Karl Pearson walked up behind Penny and put his arms around her from the back and told her how fun it was to see her and how much he loved her. She stiffened at his embrace because she didn't know who he was and then when she turned around he was equally shocked because he didn't know who she was. He apologized profusely and told her that he had thought she was Sis. Shurtleff. That story always made her laugh when she would retell it but as she got to know Bro. Pearson, she also loved him dearly, just as I did.

The times our family camped with the Cherry, Smiley and Anderson Families at Yosemite and at the beach are some of our family's most cherished memories. Listening to our children tell of the fun escapades that they had done during the day, the bike rides, watching the boys kayak down the river or the kids climb the rocks, sitting around the campfires at night, swinging in the hammocks, going on hikes or walks, crawling into the boys tent and being overcome with the smell of stinky shoes, playing games, watching John, Michael, Kent and Jason play soccer, taking rides in the car and then having to push the Suburban back to the campsite or quietly discussing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Those were the times that memories were made of!

One time we were going to make scones for everyone for breakfast but we needed a place for the dough to thaw and rise overnight. Penny offered that we could leave the dough in their trailer during the night. Well, the next morning when they woke up there was dough everywhere as it had been so warm in the trailer during the night that the dough had expanded in grand proportions. That morning we all experienced some tasty scones!

One day Penny came over to my house. I called to her to come in as I was talking on the phone. She entered the kitchen and right then water started pouring, like a running garden hose, out of the ceiling chandelier above the kitchen table that was located right underneath the kid's bathtub. I just started squealing and was frantically looking for a towel or something in which to catch the water. Penny didn't waste anytime as she was a woman of action. She just grabbed the Chocolate Sheet Cake that was sitting on the counter and put it under the running water. Have you ever seen walls with soggy, splashed chocolate cake on them? I said, "Penny, WHY did you pick my chocolate cake of all things? She just looked at me in shock and then we both just burst into laughter. She then helped me clean up the soggy mess.

In Hong Kong, Penny, Tracy (her sister) and I were in the gift shop of the Hard Rock Café at 10 o'clock at night. I was just standing in the back of the room waiting for them when a Sumo Wrestler from Japan walked in with his body guard. He saw me standing by the wall and kind of smiled at me and made a grunting. He then had his body guard take a picture of him but the body guard kept having him move over a little and then a little more. It was apparent to me that they wanted me to be in the picture because I was a large woman. Finally I said, "Would you like me to be in the picture?" They were thrilled by my offer. As the body guard was snapping photos Penny walked up. I said, "You need to come and join us". I wish that you could have seen the pure delight on that Sumo Wrestler's face with a woman of ample proportion on each side of him. We made his day and he made ours!

In China we were in a restaurant and I ordered my meal. After I was through Penny chastised me because I had ordered a Coke to drink. She said, "I can't believe that you would order a Coke when your husband is the Stake President." I told her that when I was in a foreign country that I didn't know if I could trust their water, I always ordered a Coke". She said, "Well, I am going to order bottled water". Our drinks came and she tasted her water and said, "This tastes awful. Taste it!" I said, "Over my dead body!" She drank a little more and with disgust said that it tasted like dish water so she didn't drink any more. Well, for the next week her poor body paid dearly for that bottle of water.

On one of our trips to Europe the Cherry's offered to keep Kent for us so he and John could play together. At dinner one night Kent told Penny that he didn't like the green beans that she was serving. She said, "Kent, at our house we always try a little of everything." He said, "But Sistur Chairwee, my mommy doesn't make me eat green beans because I don't like green beans." Penny said, "Well Kent, we want you to just try a few of them. It is a rule in our family that you eat a little of everything." Again he pleaded his case but Penny persisted. She told me that he then took a couple of chews, gagged and then threw up his green beans all over their table. After the shock, Steve said, "Well, I guess dinner is over. Get in the car kids. We are going to McDonalds." A cheer of glee erupted from the children at the table. Don't you just think that it is a miracle that you still remained friends with us after this?

One story that I really loved to hear Penny tell was when she had gone to San Francisco for a few nights with Steve for a School Board Seminar. She said that she was really feeling fancy and special that she got to stay in such a nice hotel…I think it was the Fairmont. She said the next morning when Steve was in meetings she decided that she was going to go out walking and be a part of the San Francisco scene. So, she put on makeup, combed her hair, put on new panty hose, got dressed in a new outfit and then put on her coat to go outside. She said that she looked really good was feeling quite special. When she was walking across the lobby of the hotel she could feel that her new pantyhose were slipping down. So, she put her right hand in her coat pocket so that she could hold on to them while she went back to the elevator to go up to her room. She kindly smiled at everyone in the elevator but by the time that she got to her floor she exited the elevator taking little, tiny Chinese steps down the hallway to her door as she was fearful that her pantyhose were going to completely fall down. When she got to the door of her room she realized that the room key was in her right pocket, the pocket where she was desperately holding on to her panty hose. Well, what was a woman to do but let go of them and get her key to open the door. When she did…shazammmm her pantyhose went to her ankles. A maid, down the hall, witnessed the whole thing and burst into laughter. She came down to the Penny's room and she and Penny sat on the bed and laughed and laughed. Penny could not tell this story with laughing so hard that tears would roll down her cheeks.

And how can any of us think about Penny without thinking of her love for music. She used her talents as the Choir Director for the Ward Choir. She used her talents for the children at Noddin Elementary School and they will forever remember her as she touched their lives through her positive, encouraging personality and music. She loved to sing with her children and they with her. She would cry with pure joy when she would hear Kristi or Traci sing. Her beautiful Alto voice was a great addition to the Santa Clara Chorale. Oh, how we had fun at those rehearsals, much to the Director's chagrin, and then cherished the experiences of singing the Classics in concert. How fun it was to watch Penny's face when Michael came to the Chorale Christmas rehearsal with his RED hair. Instead of being embarrassed she just laughed with the rest of us because everyone loved Michael's fresh approach to life. And she was proud of John because he worked on the production crew for the Chorale and had the reputation of being a trusted, hard worker.

It was within the four walls of the Cherry Home that a great work was accomplished. Each child has married in the Temple. Kristi, John and Michael served missions. All of your children have graduated from College. Because of loving, nurturing parents they have flourished. Penny was a very special wife, mother and friend. She was a radiant individual, a daughter of God and she took her job of mother very seriously. Pres. Hinckley said that "It is in the home that your children learn the truth, that they learn the Gospel, that integrity is cultivated, that self-discipline is instilled and that love is nurtured". Steve and Penny, you were able to accomplish this in your home. How fortunate your children have been as your home was a little bit of Heaven on Earth. Blessed were they that resided within your four walls.

I love all of you Cherrys and always felt that you were part of my family. I will miss your mother dearly but she has left me and you with choice, choice remembrances.

So, Penny my dear friend, may God bless you…..until we meet again.

ALMA DON