Rest in Peace, Dear Sister Stephanie Sappington

Our sweet friend Stephanie Ann Kaehuokalani Sappington passed into eternity on September 20, 2021 - coincidentally my mother’s and Uncle Bob Sappington’s birthday – after a valiant battle with colon cancer.

Stephanie was beautiful inside and out.  She loved bird-watching, movies (her favorite was "The King and I"), Beatles music, video games; her dog Sam, who when he died was buried under the family's apple tree in the backyard of their Santa Clara home.  She also loved hiking, camping, playing the piano or her violin or sharing her beautiful singing voice in the shower or with her ward choir; and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ with children - hers and everyone else's!  But, she mostly loved her family, including her husband Ron.  She and Ron were married for 42 years, 7 months and 17 days - and together they shared 8 wonderful kids (including two who were actually adopted grandchildren and who were sealed to them).   

She spent the last month of her life in the hospital.  When asked what she missed most about being at home - aside from Ron - she said "working on family history, going to church, my church family and seeing and talking with my family and neighbors."  

 The morning before her passing, her bishop came to visit.  She told him of her concern that her temple recommend had expired during the COVID year.  He was able to take care of that, noting, "Sister Sappington believed the true meaning of CTR ... was not so much Choose the Right, but Current Temple Recommend."

People wonder how we are related, and I guess technically, we aren’t since she – like me – is not a Sappington by blood, but by marriage. However, we found a common Sappington ancestor in Ed’s 4^th great-grandfather and Ron’s 5^th great-grandfather making our husbands something like 16^th cousins.  

The shocking other coincidence is how much Ron looks like a combination of Ed’s brothers Robert and Phil, except he has Jim Holiday’s fancy facial hair in the form of a handlebar mustache!

 

We met Ron and Stephanie not long after they moved here and felt an instant connection, not because of our name-in-common, but because they are delightful people.

 

Stephanie, who was born in Hawaii, taught hula lessons here in St. George.  I’m certain she decided to use this skill to help with family finances when their 6 children were young.  My story about all this goes like this:  one afternoon, my doorbell rang at our home in Bloomington.  When I answered, there stood a little girl – probably 8 or 9 years old – as her mother drove off on her way to somewhere else.  The little girl told me she was here “for my hula lesson.”  It took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about but finally realized she was looking for Stephanie in Santa Clara … not Linda in Bloomington.  Unfortunately, this was at a time before cell phones so we were not able to call her mother, who eventually returned to retrieve her daughter.  It was shocking to think she would drop her daughter off at the home of a total stranger without confirming she was at the right address!  

Stephanie and I got a good laugh out of this story, but I felt bad she didn’t get paid!

 

We have had them over for dinner from time-to-time and see them in the community occasionally.  We will miss her!

 

Rest in peace, beautiful Stephanie!

Kendi, Taylor and Baby Boy Beau

Only six of our 21 "grands" are boys (Zachary, Kaler, Kole, Kyle, Joshua and now Zion) ... but all 6 of our "greats" are boys (Daxton, Bentley, Nash, Memo, Cruz and now Beau).

Beau Taylor Dunkley, firstborn child of Kendi Hansen and Taylor Dunkley, was born at 6:30 p.m. on September 1, 2021.  He weighed in at 7 lbs. 8 oz.

When just 8 days old, she strapped him into his swing, and walked down the hall to her bedroom to change her shirt but felt impressed her baby was in trouble.  Returning to the living room, she found their very big dog Ralph with the baby's head in his mouth.  Luckily, because he was strapped in, the dog was not able to pull him out of the swing, which may have saved his teeny, tiny new life.  

She rushed baby Beau to the hospital emergency room where he was examined and declared OK aside from tooth marks resulting in blood and a little bruising, but, for sure Beau's Momma and Daddy are going to need a few days to recover.

And, no, the dog no longer lives with the family!

Stephanie Lovell is a CPA

 We are so proud of Stephanie Shipley Lovell, a wife, mother and now also a Certified Public Accountant working for a couple of years in the accounting department at Domo, Inc., a cloud software company based in American Fork, UT.  Domos specializes in business intelligence tools and data visualization.  

It’s been a long road to her goal but she has just received word and it’s official!  To reach this milestone, the State of Utah (the certifying agency) required her to get her education in the state.  She is a BYU graduate with a degree in accounting.  She was also required to take Utah’s uniform CPA exam; get the necessary experience in the Beehive State; get the Utah CPA license; and, now she will be required to maintain her license through continuing education studies.

 

Simeon’s Mrs. and Sydney’s momma has now made her own mark in the world and she’s going to continue to achieve because … well, that’s just the kind of woman she is.  We are pleased to call her one of our own.