Our daughter, Stephanie (Steph) was a wonderful person, inside and out. She has an outgoing personality with a smile for everyone. Her love of life was shown in everything she did.
When she was in elementary school, she played the trumpet. When she got to high school, she did not want to play in the marching band. Instead she played with the "pep band" at basketball games. She thought that was way cooler than in a uniform marching. She actually played that trumpet very well.
Before her final year of high school, she decided that she wanted to go to cosmetology school. She started in the summer before her senior year, and graduated at the top of her class. When she got a job in the salon business, she had many clients. Steph was a very talented hair stylist. Of course, as her mother, my hair cuts and colors were free, because "I gave birth to her." We always laughed about that.
She liked having a good time. She traveled to California by herself when she was 18 to visit her brother who was in the Marines and stationed there. That gave her a chance to see and play with her two very young nieces.
Steph got married when she was 22. The next year, she had her first child. She was the mother of two, Benjamin and Taylor. Ben was 13 when she passed away and Taylor was 9. She was very involved in the activities of her children. When her daughter, Taylor joined cheerleading at the age of 8, Steph became a cheerleading coach.
A good example of how much Steph loved her children is when she and her good friend went on a bus trip to New York City to shop for Christmas. The first stop was the American Girl doll store. After purchasing a few items including the doll, they headed down to the village on the subway. At one of the quaint shops, Steph found baby turtles. She just had to buy them for the kids. So here are these two women – on the subway, carrying a doll and accessories, plus two turtles in their plastic containers.
We are a very close-knit Christian family. So of course, Steph's last act of kindness would be that she would give the gift of life to whoever could benefit from such a precious gift.
Rupert and Charlene Taylor