Ginger’s Eulogy

Thank you for coming to honor the memory of our daughter, Genevieve.  We are touched by your offerings of help, prayer and in many cases marvelous efforts to be with us and support us during this family tragedy.  Often times we don’t know the impact we make on others until we see them assembled to send us off on a voyage, witness our graduation, help us pack to move to a new place or encourage us despite their loss to start a new life.  Ginger has left us to voyage through the endless wonders of eternity.  She has moved on as we all must do to start a new life.  She has learned her required lessons for this life and has graduated to a life with God.  Those of us left behind will miss her - desperately.

Ginger – she wanted to be called Ginger, a nickname she picked out for herself, was a mostly quiet person who always blazed her own trail.  She was a girl who surrounded herself with a world of imagination and beauty that she carried with her at all times.  Her world was always more colorful and brighter than the world of reality.  She traveled through life as an actress in a continuous play who when she didn’t like the script would simply ad lib her lines and follow her own stage direction.  I remember when she was a child of about 3 we took her to see the Disney movie, Cinderella.  She was swept away by the wonder of it.  We had to sit through two showings back-to-back.   For weeks afterward she would only allow us to dress her in glass slippers that had to be slipped on her foot, as any noble prince would do with the exclamation, “It fits!”  Sending her to bed required that we make sounds like the gonging of a big towered clock striking the approach of midnight.

She built on her passion for imagery and her own unique sense of style.  Her love of color and fabric led her to pursue a career in fashion design.  At the time of her death, she was working at a cosmetics store that specialized in vivid colors and unique blends.   Ginger was always in control, always quietly passionate about her beliefs.  Her quiet nature made her difficult to read.  Often times the only signal that things were going especially well was a little skipping walk she would do around the house while getting ready for school or work.  Harder times were met with a silent dignity that would be a disguise for her iron determination to move ever forward.  She always worked hard.  She had to.  School was difficult due to a reading disability.  To avoid reading struggles she learned to memorize everything just so she wouldn’t have to study them again.  This skill later served her in theatrical performances.  She would learn all the lines for an entire play and would help to cue performers she worked with.

She loved the theatre – acting in plays, working behind the scenes in makeup, costume design and making the costumes.  Always more color!  She also loved theatre people and gravitated to more avant-garde styles and thinking.  She was always the champion for the forgotten people, for the underdog.  Most often her friends would include those she found who were not accepted in the more popular social circles.  I guess it would be safe to say that life with Ginger was always colorful and unique.

I have heard time and time again that she was a person you could not easily forget.  Her depth of character, the strength of her convictions and her no nonsense perspective of the world and its people made for engaging conversation.  Also her strawberry blonde hair and vivid green eyes commanded your attention.

I like to think that her world now is dazzling with color, brought to brilliance by her presence.  If there is an opening for a rainbow painter she will probably get the job – she always got every job she sought.  If in the future you see a rainbow that looks a bit different – colors out of order, sparkly, a lot more vivid or maybe plaid, you can bet it was painted by our princess of style, our beloved Ginger.

Comforting us many people say that we gave her a good life and we thank you for those words, but in truth it was Ginger who gave us a good life.  Adieu baby-girl, we will miss you down here.

David Derby
Ginger's Dad