This is a photo of Leanne and Vicki on graduation day in 1984 at Furman University. On Saturday, September 16th, we celebrated Vicki's life. For me the entire day was at once devastating and comforting. I cannot fully grasp the reality of Vicki's absence. My every thought of her drives me to tears because of the tremendous void she has left in our hearts. But throughout the weekend I drew great comfort from the hundreds of family, friends and neighbors gathered to honor Vicki.
Vicki's friend Leanne provided one of the most memorable moments of the day when she delivered a tribute to Vicki - a tribute for which I will forever remain grateful. I am posting the text of Leanne's comments here for those of you who were not able to attend the celebration service:
This is written in loving memory of my precious and beautiful friend Vicki. I met Vicki during our freshman year at Furman University in the fall of 1980. I was immediately impressed by her kindness and thoughtfulness and amused by her mischievous fun-loving side. Regarding her mischievousness, Vicki instigated and executed a prank on a mutual friend, Denise, during our freshman year that involved filling Denise’s dorm room with crumpled up newspapers within a few feet of the ceiling. The Furman friends have pictures documenting Denise’s surprise upon returning to her room to discover she was the recipient/victim of Vicki’s conspiratorial handiwork, including a picture of Denise standing in the middle of her dorm room completely engulfed by crumpled issues of the Greenville Daily News! With respect to Vicki’s thoughtfulness, she organized and implemented a surprise birthday party for me in cahoots with other Furman friends and my Mother in the summer of 1981 that caught me completely off guard and remains the happiest of all my birthday memories!
The above examples are an opening, but I cannot close here, because I have loved and known Vicki far too long to conclude with one or two stories when our friendship has spanned the entirety of our adult lives. Not long after learning of Vicki’s diagnosis, I was visiting a mutual college friend, DeeAnne, in Birmingham, Al. Typical of old friends, we pulled out snapshots from our college days and one picture of Vicki struck me deeply in the heart. It was a picture of Vicki taken during a dorm room party our sophomore year. She is happily dancing and playing air guitar. This picture captures a wonderfully spontaneous, joyful, carefree moment in Vicki’s life, and I suppose it had a profound effect on me for this reason – it provided a visual representation of a prayerful wish that I held for my precious and beautiful friend – a cancer-free life filled with joy and populated with people to love and be loved by.
When I reflect upon Vicki’s life, I know my prayerful wish for her was answered 1,000 times over in many immeasurable ways from beginning to end, and I consider myself truly blessed to have been a recipient of her fellowship on earth. I can only hope that I was in some measure as good a friend to Vicki, as she was to me. I’m glad I had the opportunity to room with her our senior year at Furman, to write a glowing recommendation for her as a supplement to her US-2 Missionary Application in the spring of 1984, to serve as the Maid of Honor in her wedding in 1989, to rejoice with her when her children were born, and to weep with her over the knowledge that her life was being cut short by terminal cancer.
When I think about the hopes and dreams of my lovely young friend dancing in the dorm, I rejoice that Vicki was blessed to have wonderful parents, a loving husband, and a beautiful family because I know this was a dream come true for her. I remember when Vicki visited me with Kelly and Lauren in the summer of 1997. The girls went swimming in my apartment complex pool and left their hand prints on the sliding glass doors of my condominium. Although I am compulsive about cleaning, I confess I never washed Kelly’s and Lauren’s hand prints off those sliding glass doors. I knew how happy Vicki was to be a Mother of two lovely daughters and those little hand prints on my sliding glass door represented the fulfillment of my friend’s dream; and served as a constant reminder to me of my friend’s joy. When you love someone, you rejoice in their hopes because they have left a permanent imprint on your heart.
Vicki and I matured into young women together at Furman and I know that loyal steadfast friends like Vicki are a rare and irreplaceable treasure. I am deeply saddened by her loss and my heart aches for all of us who have loved Vicki as a wife, daughter, mother, sister, aunt, cousin, teacher, church member, volunteer, co-worker, and friend. I will never be able to fully articulate the essence of my lovely friend, but I do know I will always have the utmost respect for her integrity and grace. I will miss her vibrancy and spunk! I will remember that Vicki was a person with many talents, all of which she refined through a strong, determined, conscientious, and willful spirit. Although I am earthbound, I believe that Vicki’s spirit is dancing and playing air guitar!
What else can I possibly say my dear friend but this…
“I thank my God in my every remembrance of you (Philippians 1:3).”
