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!