Celebrating Emily's Life - Part 1

We have been very touched and comforted by the outpouring of sympathy for the loss of our Emily.  Her funeral services were yesterday and we wanted to post the eulogies for those that were unable to attend.

Dad’s Eulogy for Emily

October 2, 2013

A few years ago Jan and I attended a concert where Elton John sang “life is wonderful with you in the world” and Billy Joel sang “The Good Die Young”.  They both could have been singing about Emily.

Emily was a joy every day of her life and yes, she died way too young.  Vigorous people who lead healthy lifestyles and who make good decisions are not supposed to die at 35.  It is just not fair.

But that is what has happened.

Our hearts are absolutely broken over our loss.

At a time of great loss it helps to focus on what we still have.

One thing that we have is the knowledge that Emily’s life was a life well lived.  She excelled academically and graduated from Villanova University with honors.  She had a career in Public Relations that she absolutely loved.  Over the years she steadily advanced to positions with greater responsibility – she even was promoted earlier this year.

Emily was able to travel extensively.  She went to Europe 11 times, had multiple trips to Tahiti & Bora Bora, visited Hawaii, several places in the Caribbean and just about any nice place you can think of the the Continental United States.

She had many talents but her special talent was writing.  I just love reading things she wrote.  She will never be able to produce that novel that she had in her head.

It was always important to Emily to do things correctly.  She would think and think on virtually everything she did until it was just right whether it be a client presentation or selecting the perfect greeting card.

Emily developed great and lasting friendships at every stage of her life from grade school on.  She had wonderful friends and she was a good friend.

Another thing that we have is happy memories.  We are a close knit family and truly enjoyed countless times together whether it be a trip, a walk on the beach or watching a game together.  Emily had a wide range of interests including literature, her music, knitting, sports and spending quality time with her family and friends.  Emily battled cancer for 3 ½ years – 10% of her life.  The day we met Dr. Sara he told her that she was Emily; not Emily the cancer patient.  He said to continue to make happy memories and we did just that including many great times at the shore this season.  We would not have had  3 ½ years worth of additional happy memories without the tremendous care and effort of Dr. Sara and the amazing team at St. Luke’s/Roosevelt Hospital.  Dr. Sara is with us this morning – thank you Dr. Sara.

One other thing that we will have is Emily’s legacy.  She fought her battle with the monster that is breast cancer with courage, strength, dignity and class.  She never once said “poor me”.  Through her blog and other communications during this battle many people got to see what we knew all along – the wonderful person that was Emily.  Many people have remarked that her attitude, candor and humor during this battle were inspirational – what a fine compliment for our sweet Emily.

Ladies and Gentlemen, as we say good bye to Emily today I want to thank each and every one of you for the part you played in enriching the life of Emily Christine Easter.  Good bye sweetheart.