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Letter from Nan Taschner

May 27, 2005

WOW!! What a wonderful friendship Emma and I shared over the last l5 years. Words will never be able to express just how much she meant and will always mean to me. When no one else would have, she believed in me and remained a friend when others would have walked away. Emma’s life and existence emulated the likeness of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Because of her relationship with the Lord, she tirelessly invested much into so many people around the world including myself.

Emma was more a sister than a friend and definitely a spiritual mentor who invested into me everything she had both spiritually and naturally. There was a joy and radiance that surrounded Emma that only comes through a real relationship with the Lord. She so desired for everyone else to have this same type of relationship with the Lord and prayed daily for her family, friends and even those she didn’t really know. It was her desire to show people the love of Christ by accepting people for who they were and where they were at instead of judging people for their short comings.

We’ve been through many things together sad times, learning times, trying times, exhilarating (Emma’s word for scary) times, but mostly good times. I’ve never seen Emma more happy than the day she walked down the Woodstock Park wedding isle to marry Chris. The entire wedding was amazing and it was wonderful how everyone (old friends and new friends) rallied around her to help make the wedding a flowery success. Always the organizer, she was commenting on how one song was suppose to be played before another, etc. as all of us bridesmaids and Emma were being driven over to the park in the convertible. We couldn’t help but laugh and that is when I told her that at this moment she wasn’t the organizer (although she literally organized her entire wedding) and her job was to just concentrate on walking down the isle. She laughed at herself and said “you are right” and then continued to enjoy her day. When they married it was as if they had been married for years, they fit together so wonderfully. She loved Chris so much!

Practical jokes were a big part of Emma’s life at work, church and at home. She has told me a number of things she had done during her days working for the University of Georgia Extension Office in Fayetteville such as the home made vomit at Rock Eagle, the home made “chocolate” that was really dirt balls that looked like chocolate sent to a fellow co-worker and friend, and many other jokes such as these. I had the honor of living next door to her in a house converted into a duplex for about 3 years in Fayetteville and was the recipient of many of her practical jokes. She had a rubber pet snake that she loved to put into different places to scare me such as in shorts she new I would most likely be wearing and there were other times that she would just appear out of no where and practically scare the life out of me and just laugh at the reaction. I appreciate her for her sometimes “warped” sense of humor that made Emma, Emma. She appreciated a good joke and didn’t mind if anyone got one over on her either.

Always the encourager, she never missed an opportunity to encourage others even when she herself needed encouragement. I remember her telling me that when she felt the lowest is the time she would start encouraging others the most and through the encouraging she would in turn be encouraged. Emma always encouraged me to be all that I could be and to be “myself”. She was a great example of a person who displayed grace under fire. No matter what the situation, she had grace and that is the one thing I desire to display in addition to the love of Christ for others.

I love you my friend and sister.

Nan

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