Lacey Chase

Hey everybody! I'm Lacey and I was a good long time friend of Emily Jo's. When I was asked to write something up for this website, I was honored but at the same time unsure of what to write or say. I'm not real good at putting my thoughts and feelings into words and I don't want to put you through long hours of mine and Emily's whole childhood life story. I also don't want to say things that may make you sad but rather smile instead.

One thing Em and I had in common was that we were always up for a good laugh, so I thought that I would just share a few good memories that may make you laugh as well. One memory that comes to mind is back in 8th grade. As you all know, Emily had the biggest and curliest head of hair. Well, everyone can agree that people need haircuts every once and awhile. Well, that time was up for Em and we were at her house when her mom said she needed to trim Em's hair because her ends were getting bad. Em didn't like the idea but agreed to a small quarter inch trim. What she didn't know was while she was sitting in the bathroom and I was watching, her mom was trimming a little more than she thought. When Em saw her hair on the ground, 2-3 inches gone, she flipped! She was practically in tears and her mom and I were laughing but at the same time trying to tell her that it looked fine. All I could think about was how I had never seen Emily go crazy like that over a small little haircut. But what I also realized was how precious that big head of hair was to her that day too.

One other fond memory that I have of Emily was our sophomore year in high school. Kelsie Thelen, Emily and I went together to a basketball game on a Friday night. We were playing at Lansing Catholic and the theme of dressing up was to be "preppy". She borrowed this short, gray, pleaded skirt of mine and dressed up to look the theme. After the game was the most fun though. We were jammin' to some music and having a great time on the way home being super silly and laughing about everything. When we got to Em's house to drop her off, she got out very un-lady like (haha), and ran to her front door (it was in the middle of January). By this time, Kelsie was backing out of her driveway and we were both looking back watching for any cars coming our way. And at that very moment, I turn around and see Emily running in heels as hard as she could with this short skirt flying up and hair flying everywhere. I couldn't even get the words out because I was laughing so hard and had tears running down my face. Finally I screamed Kelsie's name and she slammed on the brakes and turned around and here we see Emily screaming for us to stop. We didn't know what she was screaming about. Thinking maybe there was some kind of emergency, we rolled down our window. Trying not to laugh from the sight we had just witnessed, we managed to ask what in the world she was freaking out about. Trying to catch her breath she goes "You guys....I left my cell phone in here!" We looked at her with a blank stare thinking..."Are you serious?" We busted up in laughter and she started laughing and said,..."I'm serious...my parents would have taken it away if I would have lost it one more time." Those words were so true because if you knew Emily, you would have known that she lost things ALL the time.

I'm not going to keep going cause I could, but these are just a few of many great memories I had with Emily. Sure there were bad ones too but they are the good ones that keep me smiling and keeping the pain numb from missing her so much! Emily was my first friend I ever made. She was so special not only to me but to everyone in a different way. In mine, she always knew how to get me to laugh and when I was having a bad day, she always knew when there was something wrong. We loved to shop, we loved to laugh about anything and everything and we both shared a passion for volleyball. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of Em and her crazy, fun spirit for life. For the longest time I was angry and didn't understand why God wanted something like this to happen. I believe that He didn't want us to suffer in any way but He needed another angel up in Heaven. Do I like the decision that He has made? No, of course not. I want her here just like everyone else does but this is where the obstacle of selfishness comes in and you just have to say....she is happier than ever up there and we will be okay. Maybe not today or tomorrow or the next day, but in time...we will be okay.