When you don't know what to say

Today I went to the funeral home because a friend of mine died. We weren't close friends. Actually, we hung out with some of the same people - and that was before I had my oldest daughter 7 years ago. That's how we knew each other. But I liked this woman. She was cool.

And although I'm always talking - and writing - I just don't have the words today. So I'm going to share her obituary.

Perreault, Lori Jo
Bay City, Michigan

Lori Jo Passed away peacefully November 6, 2008 at Brian’s House surrounded by family members and friends. She flashed across the sky like a comet, lit bright, for a while---and then was gone far too quickly. Like Elizabeth Barrett Browning, she asked the world: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Her family, friends and thousands unlucky enough not to have met her yet will mourn the laughing, sparkly eyed brunette who threw the mantle of her grandmother Ramona over herself and went out to conquer the world.
Orders of nuns, kids in poverty, minority scholars, honest philanthropies
needing organization, churches, schools-were all her passions through the Ramona
Non-Profit Consulting Group. Her greatest sadness is that there was still
so much to do, so many people to help, so many causes unfulfilled…At Essexville
Garber High she was homecoming queen, head cheerleader, a good scholar.
She played a great game of soccer on the field, worked at the Midland Nuclear
Plant and taught Bay City school officials the power of positive thinking as a
dynamic secretary in Communications. Off to the South, she earned a
marketing degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, took Texas by
storm and learned her trade in venture capital and fundraising in Fort
Worth. She studied theology and hoped for a master’s degree that will have
to wait for another college in another world and a diploma from a higher
power. Her life has been her theocratic curriculum.

Back home the old St. Mary’s Convent facing the wrecking ball was her cause, and she enlisted family and friends, throwing their lives into the project of
love. Work for her was endless, her clock had no hands. Her parties
were monumental and the grand piano spread classical music over the
assemblage. The brazen cat Pumpkin interrupted executive meetings and was
never chastised. She cooked daily for a dear friend Pat Ankney and her
numerous charities will never be fully realized.

She was born November 23, 1962 in Bay City. She is survived by her father and
Step-mother, Joseph Lynn and Ellen Jean Perreault, her mother, Marie E.
Perreault, and four adoring siblings; her sisters Lynn Weaver, Lois Perreault,
Lisa (Mike) Grills and one brother Ladd (Heidi) Perreault. Lori also had a
very special relationship with each and every one of her 14 nieces and nephews;
Joseph Weaver, Sarah Hunt, Daniel and Michelle Perreault, Athena, Alex, Olivia
and Carly Grills and Brittney, Sean, Nikolas, Ryan, Adam and Leah Perreault.

Funeral Liturgy and Rite of Committal will be on Monday at 10:00 a.m.
at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church. Rev. Fr. Christopher M. Coman will
preside. Private entombment will be in St. Stanislaus Mausoleum. Friends
may call at Penzien-Steele Funeral Home on Sunday from 2-8 p.m. A Rosary
service will be held Sunday at 2 p.m. and a Vigil for the Deceased will take
place at 7 p.m. She will lie in state at the church on Monday from 9 a.m.
until service time. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial
contributions to St. Stanislaus Church.