My name is Steve Royalton, and I have been the Youth Ministries Coordinator here at Covenant since July of 1996. That fall Emily became a part of our Middle School Youth Connection. She was an active and vital part of our Middle School and High School groups here for the years that followed. I was honored when Margaret asked me to speak today about Emily. After I hung up the phone I was also a bit intimidated. How was I going to summarize a person’s life in 10 minutes? But then I realized that the words spoken during this service will not be the last words spoken of Emily…not by a long shot. This past Tuesday night I had the privilege of spending an evening with Margaret, Steve, Greta and Ian. We spent a lot of time talking, remembering, laughing, and crying. We talked about shared experiences we had with Emily and I also learned a few things about her. We looked at a lot of pictures and with every picture there was a story. The dozens of pictures gathered here today are like drops of water that remind us of the ocean of life that was lived by Emily and that will continue to wash over so many people for a long, long time. Emily came into this world with a bang! It was almost as if she said, “Yep, now is the time, let’s go!” She was nearly born in the car on the way to the hospital. I think she wanted to drive. She weighed nearly 10 pounds at birth, and I think half of that was her smile. It was at an early age that Margaret realized that Emily had what her brother Ian described as a “spectacular appetite.” She loved to eat and also came to love to cook. That spectacular appetite wasn’t just for food: it was for life. She was a renaissance girl who loved to experience many different things. Early on she displayed characteristics that would stay with her throughout her life. Many of those are listed in your bulletin today. She was feisty and creative early on. Her Mom told me how she figured out a way to get out of the crib and slide down the bars and show up in the living room as if to say “Ta da! Here I am!” She had a terrific relationship with her brother Ian. As a young child, she wanted to do everything that Ian did. She didn’t understand why girls couldn’t play organized football. She had the helmet and she had the pads and she certainly had the desire. The guys probably lucked out that she wasn’t allowed to join their league. She had a baby carriage that she used to use in a very creative way. She would dress up Fergie the family cat in baby clothes and put him in the carriage and push him around and say “look at my baby.” I’m sure Fergie wasn’t too happy about it, but I’m also sure that Fergie really didn’t have a say in the matter. There’s a picture here of Ian and Emily standing on a boat dock. Emily is holding up a fish that is nearly as big as she is. She was fishing with her Grandpa when she hooked the monster fish. Bringing in a nice size northern pike is a rather ambitious undertaking for a little kid. Grandpa offered to take over but Emily didn’t want Grandpa’s help because she wanted the credit for catching it. Emily’s interest in the arts took hold at an early age. She tried different types dance, musical instruments, and expressing herself through other artistic means such as the self portrait you see here today. 2. As a young child Emily’s thought process worked on many levels. When she was two and a half she developed a special bond with her Uncle Tommy during one Thanksgiving holiday. Her uncle died a short time later. When in second grade, Emily and her family were walking along Lake Michigan on Point Beach near their home in Manitowoc when she kept saying she could feel Uncle Tommy’s presence. When Emily was in Middle School I got to know her through our youth program here at Covenant. Emily was often a part of our Sunday gatherings at the church. She could light up the room by simply walking into it. She had that rare quality for an adolescent in that she could talk to anybody and make them feel comfortable regardless if they were in her immediate circle of friends or not. She went with us on overnight retreats to places like Bethel Horizons. She made a lot of friends here during the past 7 years. I talked to fellow Youth group alumni BJ Schuster a couple of nights ago from his Air Force base in New Mexico. BJ remembered how she could always come up with some random quirky comments that would make him laugh. I also heard stories from others about how Emily used to break into the voices of Hanz and Franz, much to the delight and sometimes bewilderment of those within earshot. It was through Youth Connection that I got to know Emily’s stepsister Greta. They always had a very special relationship that was easy for anyone to see. Emily’s ability to make others feel comfortable was a work in her relationship with Greta. Greta told me that Emily would “Make me feel that I could just be myself.” During her years with our Youth Connection she developed a sense of the Spiritual and a connection with God. In the summer of 2000 she was a part of our High School mission trip to the Ft. Apache reservation of Arizona. In the summer of 2002 she went with us to the Appalachia region of West Virginia. It was during these trips that she continued to realize her potential and begin to establish a sense of community and a sense of the world outside of Madison. I know she helped me develop my sense of the spiritual as well. She had this pickup truck, you know the one with the imitation cow fur seat covers, that she drove around in. I understand there’s paint samples from this truck scattered around various parts of South-Central Wisconsin. She was the only teenage girl I’ve ever known that was tooling around in a pickup truck and it really seemed to work for her. I remember when she would come here and pick me up for lunch. Riding as a passenger with her behind the wheel I know I got closer to Jesus. It was during her time in Middle School that she was diagnosed with diabetes. It was then that I saw some of her other characteristics come to light. As Ian and Greta told me the other night, she never backed down from a challenge. She wasn’t afraid to go toe to toe with anyone or anything. She did not show fear. I remember one day when she was in Middle School she called me here at the church to tell me about the Juvenile Diabetes Walk that was happening at Warner Park in late September. Then she basically reached through the phone, grabbed me by the shirt and said, “We’re doing this, right?!” She designed the shirts that we wore in the walk that year. We’ve done the walk every year since, raising thousands of dollars. Our High School Youth Connection has donated portions of their money raised at our annual Trash & Treasure Sale to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation because Emily made an impact upon that group. There were times on our mission trips when she became sick from the disease. It was especially then that I witnessed the love and compassion of the people around her. On our West Virginia trip in 2002 she became ill early in the week, but through the strength of her friends and the will of her heart she was bound and determined not to miss our white water rafting trip at the end of the week. The pictures of her on that rafting trip are out in the hallway. Emily graduated from Edgewood High School this past June and to no one’s surprise, had many friends there. When Emily’s graduation was approaching her Mom asked what she wanted for a graduation present. Emily said she wanted to go on a trip just with her Mom. So in June, Emily and Margaret took a trip to the Dominican Republic. They had a blast. Apparently the local guys down there really took a shine to Emily. Imagine that. Margaret will tell you she was the best of friends with her teenage daughter and how many people can say that? Whenever Margaret would face some tough times, Emily used to break into the voice of Dory the fish from the movie “Finding Nemo” and tell her to “Swim, swim, swim.” I think she’d be saying that to all of us right now. As a freshman this fall at UW-Milwaukee she harnessed her feisty quality into her life as a student and in her friendships. In school she was leaning towards political science with thoughts of going to law school. She was pulling a 4.0 this semester and quickly made many friends. All of her friends were very important to her as evident by our gathering here today. She always made an impact on the people around her be it her friends or all of the people in her immediate and extended family. I would like to say something to my kids, as I always call them, and to the other young people here today. Please know that you are loved: by God, by family, and by friends. You are deeply cherished. Don’t ever forget that. Take care of yourselves and each other. In the Gospel of John chapter 1 v.5 we are told that “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.” That light is the love of God and that Love shines through everything giving us hope, giving us comfort, and giving us each other. Music was something that was very special to Emily. She liked a lot of different groups and styles of music. I think she liked Paul McCartney, but she didn’t talk about it much, so it was kind of hard to tell. I would like to close by reading a portion of a song lyric written by one of Emily’s other favorite artists: Billy Joel. This is from his song “Lullaby (Goodnight My Angel)” “And if you sing this lull-a-bye Then in your heart there will always be a part of me Someday we’ll all be gone, but lull-a-byes go on and on They never die That’s how you and I will be.” Just as Emily felt her Uncle Tommy’s presence while walking on Point Beach as a little girl, we will feel Emily’s presence for a long, long time.