Elise's Celebration of Life, by Rennie

Elise and I became friends in kindergarten at Deep Cove School. Our Moms became friends as well. Elise and I were also friends with Lisiane and we were affectionately known as "The Three Musketeers".

Here are some of the times we shared:
Our first Games Day at Deep Cove School we did things a little different. Most of the class was running ahead of us, but when Elise got ahead of me she stopped and waited for me and when I got ahead of her I stopped and waited for her. We had not planned this – it was just what we did. I think you saw this in the pictures.

We had lots of Friday pizza and movie nights which usually resulted in sleepovers. For a few summers we basically shared our homes: hers, mine and Gramma's. Our Moms called us the "velcro sisters". This was when Elise invented the "Gramma sandwich". Put one Gramma in between two girls who loved to give and receive hugs.

One winter when it snowed I was over at Elise's house and we were playing outside. We were tobogganing in the backyard taking turns pushing each other. In her excitement Elise pushed me quite fast and before I knew it I had to grab onto a tree branch to try to stop going over the bank. I was too young to realize I just had to roll off the toboggan. The branch was prickly and I had to let go and down the bank I went. The bank was at the site of the tree house and, as most of you know, it was a fair drop. Elise was there within two seconds to help me.

On a boring rainy day Elise and I decided we should do both of our Mom's hair. We backcombed, braided and pony tailed their hair and they were good sports and wore it for the rest of the day. (Sorry Laurel, I had to bring this one up.) There are pictures of this, too.

As many of you know, Elise liked rats. When the family went on vacation once I was asked to look after the rats and the cats. Gramma drove me to their house, but she would not come in the house just in case the rats had gotten loose. I had to go into the house and feed the disgusting furballs (aka rats) by myself.

We shared many best friend bracelets and necklaces. One of our favourite pastimes was to sit on top of her bunkbeds and lip sync to songs and pretend we were famous. We also loved to play dress-up with our Mom's and Gramma's shoes, old hats, scarves and whatever we could find. We spent many, many hours playing with our Build a Bears. If either of us went on holiday we would each bring back a special outfit for Cuddles or Strawberry.

The Saanich Fair was a must see for us every year. She was a bear to wake up at 7 in the morning to get going to the fair. We didn't always like the same rides so we would bargain with one another and make sure we both got on all our favourites.

We always attended each others' birthdays and made a special point to see one another at Christmas.

One of Elise's wishes was to have a dog to cuddle and be just hers. That is when Rosie came home for Elise. We became Rosie's second home if Elise had to go to hospital or on vacation. We were able to sneak Rosie into the hospital 3 days before Elise passed away. Rosie was a huge distraction to everyone. Rosie seemed to understand when I cried that they were tears for her "mom". Thank you for sharing this very special dog with me Elise.

Elise, I very much enjoyed all the memories we made and I will truly miss you my friend.