This was read at Sarah's funeral.

For Sarah, with love

There is no way to sum up your daughter in a few pages of text. We have so much to say about Sarah. And for some reason the words to express those thoughts eludes us

Casual conversation with acquaintances who didn't know we had two teenage girls would always respond with a comment like.. Oh Gee.. lucky you. And I would always correct them.. No, we were blessed with two amazing kids… really good girls. And it wasn't just a line; we really do feel truly blessed. Even today on what might be the worst day of our lives.

Sarah could light up a room when she came into it. I heard that from her friends; I heard that from her teachers. Sarah was a confidant to her friends and to adults around her. Just recently a close friend of ours told me that Sarah had kept a birthday surprise for her daughter a secret. With a mouth that ran as fast as Sarah's, you know that couldn't have been easy.

Sarah was a peacemaker.

I will never forget one particular sleepover at our home-in middle school. I am sure that some people who are here today celebrating Sarah will remember this. She had two groups of friends who really didn't get a long. I am not sure what the issues were, but Sarah KNEW that if they would just get to know each other they would like each other. I am sure you can imagine what a disaster that night turned out to be. But she REALLY wanted it to work. She KNEW she could make it work. Sarah saw the best in everyone. She hung around with the kids whom she thought were the best.

Sarah was always talking. Half the time it was too fast for us to even understand her. Thoughts bubbled from her.

When she wanted something she was a bulldozer. Look at every obstacle that stood in her way to the Science Olympiad Team. Sarah was not a public speaker- but she stood up at a school board meeting-even knowing she would be on Westerville's public Access TV and pled her case for a team. And she got it. And with one of her best friends she accepted a first place ribbon for one event--- for lack of a better word a "robot" that they made from a remote control car that the team gutted and then she decorated with gold bows and balloons. Stop and get a mental picture of that that. And she placed in at least one of her events as well. The team walked away with 4 event medals.

We would like to share some of Sarah's own words with you. Be happy that we are not sharing her short story about Morris and Martha the unique cows or the story about the town that was haunted with violas. No wait.. we will share an excerpt of that one:

"The violists' take the violins to the concert hall and there the violists have a violin-smashing contest. Whichever violist gets the violin to break into the most pieces from falling off the roof wins. The rules are, just in case you yourself would like to join them one year, you have to steal a violin. Then you head up to the highest point on the Westerburg Concert Hall. Next, you throw the violin of the roof! BOOM! Or shall we say, crunch! It actually is quite fun."

Finally, we wanted to share words that she wrote about herself on her website. Here are some of her rambling thoughts from her sophomore and junior years. You can hear her voice in them.

I love science.

In fact, When I get older, I would like to be a chemist. Last summer I took a toxicology class and I loved it. Toxicology is the science of poisons. I really had a lot of fun. Next year I am taking AP chemistry and honors physics.

For the past five years I have been on a Science Olympiad team. Boy do I love Science Olympiad.
Now, what else should I talk about....

My three favorite classes in school are science, algebra, and orchestra. Now I really don't need to talk about science any more. If I do, you will just get bored. I like math class. I really don't know why I do. I just do. All of my friends think I am crazy but what's new.

Orchestra, orchestra, orchestra....I love orchestra.

There are only 8 violas in the whole orchestra and I'm proud to be one of them.

If we were to share other Sarah ramblings they would include viola and violin jokes. She collected them.
Why are viola jokes so short? So violinists can understand them.

Sarah would be THRILLED that we shared that joke with you. She never understood why anyone would want to play melody on a violin when the tone of a viola was so beautiful.
All of us know that Sarah was beautiful. There is nothing more to say.

We hope that the scholarship we will establish in Sarah's name will help another Westerville North student achieve his or her dream to be a scientist.