Jenn Scheinkopf Memorial Challenge

I was able to help my son by asking for some help from people I absolutely adore, you and your family helped me secure my son’s apartment. It was by a go fund me and the help was overwhelming. I’m so happy to have had you and your giving spirit Lisa, your random act of kindness is always inspiring. Thank you for this challenge ❤️ much love to you and your daughters giving nature, may she rest in paradise always🫶🏼

Explaining the video. We have had a challenging summer holiday. This is my youngest letting off steam playing soccer in the sea as if no one is looking... A man walked past us He said who is entertaining who We both said "he is entertaining me" Then all 3 of us laughed....

Hello! I have two things! One fun thing and one more helpful thing 😊 The fun thing, which you will think is funny because apparently I am obsessed with bracelets, lol! I saw these at my favorite store and instantly thought of We Fest. We have a big group that we go with every year and so I texted everyone and just asked them which color they liked out of these colors. Then surprised everyone with matching bracelets on the first day! Kind of a fun thing that people can wear again. Everyone liked them and probably would not have purchased for themselves otherwise. For the helpful thing - we live a little bit outside of town and share a driveway with another couple who are both in their 80s. They are very sweet and keep to themselves and their grandkids do not live around here. One afternoon the week before last when I was home, I had this challenge in the back of my mind. I started the day being annoyed with my nanny because she was sick and I had work to do and I was planning to juggle work and kids all day. I went out to walk my dog around the yard and take the garbage out and my neighbor Joyce was also taking her garbage out. She asked what I was doing for the day and looked a bit lonely and in that moment, I just said - not really anything, just planning to hang out with my kids, you are certainly welcome to join if you want. Joyce came over for some snacks and to hang out in my backyard with the kids. She was so excited and we had a great time visiting and she had fun interacting with my kids more than just a hi here and there. Since then, whenever she hears my kids in the backyard (you can’t automatically see them from her property), she’s been coming over to say hi with treats some days, the kids are also loving it 🥰 I don’t have a picture of the neighbors but they have the prettiest trees and this is one of the pictures of their trees I took last winter and then framed for them!

Michelle and I went down to the city to spend a special day with our daughter Elizabeth, because she has been feeling sad about the loss of our family dog We don’t get down there very often and wanted to have a nice day with her without Elizabeth having to drive up to the burbs..

A year ago I moved to THE PALACE, a luxury senior facility in my hometown and last week was invited to join the Golden Pages/AI project coordinated by the 16-year-old grandson of the owners of the facility. Keeping family memories alive is important to you as well as me, and so I welcome this opportunity to work with an AI assistant to pen memories, and stories which will be put into a book form ……not sure who will read it, if anyone, but I’m having fun doing it and in the process, I am sharing some of the stories with friends and relatives. My husband Jack was a prankster. We had purchased a large owl to put on the roof of our 1926 old-Spanish home in Coral Gables to divert the pigeons who were pooping on our property. If Jack noticed a neighbor walking his dog or just walking by, he would innocently make owl sounds from the bedroom window facing the street where the neighbor could hear it. Two neighbors were so astounded with an owl in our neighborhood in Florida that they went home and got cameras to take pictures of it and Jack and I had a good laugh and revealed the truth at a later time. It’s a “good deed” to help this schoolboy with his AI project to introduce and educate seniors painlessly to AI while at the same time I hope to bring Joy to anyone who reads my book or this entry. Blessings upon Blessings

Lisa, you may remember twice a year we sponsor fund raising as our family's pay it forward for the care and support our daughter received. One for the cancer hospital that cured her and the second for the organization that funds research for cancer cures. This past weekend we held our largest event with about 150 supporters. We were fortunate to have with us two year bone marrow transplant survivor and a young lady recent immigrant who is in need of a bone marrow transplant. Those two helped us immensely enabling our supporters to feel really good about their support. Not really a "random act" but consistent to our family mission.

In honor of Jenn’s strength and love of life, valuing time, I am going to spend more time in search of peace. Quiet instead of drinking in so much “noise”. Finding the fruits of silence > prayer > faith > love > service > peace. For others I want to avoid making the world around me noisy. Refraining from adding words and opinions that can be left unsaid. Choosing to refrain from negativity in word or deed, Like the butterfly Jenn loved I want to move through this time in more silence and nurture the world in simple movements in simple actions.

I decided to challenge myself to reach out to old friends who live far away. Life has a way of pulling us into the daily grind, and before you know it, time slips by and those connections fade. I didn’t want that to happen with the people who have been there for me through thick and thin. I started small, just sending a short text once or twice a week. Little things about what’s happening in my life and asking about theirs. Then I took it a step further and mailed handwritten cards to let them know how much they mean to me and to thank them for being my friends. Those tiny gestures sparked something bigger. One of my oldest friends and I even started a two-person book club. I now have a standing weekly phone call with another friend, and I’m texting almost daily with another. These friends are more like family, and even though kids and busy schedules had made us drift apart, it feels amazing to have them back in my life almost every day. Even if it’s just a quick text, a short call, or a snap, it keeps us close. I may not get to see these friends often, but they are some of the most important people in my life, and making the effort to stay connected has been so worth it.

I was thinking about Jenn all month but when I was riding in the rain raising scholarship funds so anyone who wants to attend the camp two of my kids went to, Camp Tavor, can, I felt connected to Jenn and her goal of making the world a better place. I met my fundraising goal and I know the money will be used to train campers and leaders that are kind and cooperative. Will never walk (or in this case ride) in the rain without thinking of Jenn and your family. Hope this helps in at least a small way.

Last week while I was volunteering at Phoenix Children’s Hospital I was called to the Emergency Department to watch a baby who was taken away from his parents due to neglect. The baby was around 9 months old and was quite distraught especially after the nurse had to place an IV into his tiny hand. I tried all of my baby calming tricks trying to help console him but nothing worked. As my shift ended, this child was still quite hysterical and the nurse said I was not to worry as the baby will eventually wear himself out. Well my heart would not let me leave this child and for the next 5 hours I sat rocking and singing to the baby despite his continued hysterical crying. I gave him as much love and care as I could well into the night and although he was unable to calm down, I made sure he wouldn’t be alone in the ED room and stayed until he was admitted to and sent to a room in the hospital. I came home late that night and cried as I told my husband of this tiny person’s struggle and how my heart broke for all he had gone through.

Here’s the version without dashes: I picked up a bag of butterfly pens and decided that as I walk through Seattle Tacoma Airport, every time someone smiles at me or if I see someone who could use a smile, I will hand them a pen, show them Jenn’s picture, and share her beautiful spirit. I will ask them to keep smiling and either pass the pen on to someone else who needs it or keep it as a reminder to keep smiling in Jenn’s honor. 🦋

I have been fighting with myself to understand why my son that have a son 5 months ago decided not to live with the mother, just be a father. Now I have a grandson that I visit once a week, enjoy my time tring to talk with him, but the relationship with my son still is not the best one, as I still do not accept his behavior. Last week I start learning that happiness does not come from other people- event your son - doing what you expect, You need to love them, wishing their happiness and respecting their freedom. This has been a mental breakthrough that at the end provided me a bit of mental health happiness.

Sometimes it’s just the little things that make you smile and connect with others. A simple smile or a short conversation with the cashier can make all the difference for me. I enjoy walking away smiling and feeling like I related to someone. It can carry me through the rest of the day. There is one person in particular I enjoy seeing. Someone I would not otherwise have met. She is a person at the gym. Our trainer connected us. Now we schedule our sessions together. We try to work around each other’s schedule and look forward to seeing each other. For me, I leave the workout uplifted, and it is not just the endorphins. I make sure I ask about her family and the most recent activities she had with them. We encourage each other during a particularly difficult set, and she laughs a lot, making me laugh. It takes very little to ask people about themselves, it makes them feel good and, in the end, when they smile and laugh it is uplifting. Putting others first makes everyone feel better.

I have very little memories of Jenn mainly because her and the family moved to Arizona when she was very young. But a few things that I know about her, she’s a very loving, caring, supportive and strong. I do remember the times that I’ve been to Arizona to see her and she always have a beautiful smile on her face, with the gentlest hugs that I’ll always cherish. She also got into some classic music from the 60s, 70s and 80s music. I miss you and love you always Jenn.

This challenge itself warmed my heart and filled me with joy for the simple appreciate of the love that surrounds us everyday. Lisa has always been such a caring person and I am not surprised that she is inspiring all of us to take this opportunity to see things from this beautiful perspective. I am simply thankful for health and relationships that give me the true meaning of life.

Dear Lisa, Thank you for sharing your family's story. I am an TOC consultant who knows your books but didn't know your story. I live in Brazil and I have a disabled son, Nicolas, who is 11 years old. He has a profound cognitive development limitation due to his epilepsy disease. My wife, Francis, and I feel the love he has for us, even though we don't communicate with words. There is a word in our language, Portuguese, called "saudade". This word is not easy to translate into other languages. It's the equivalent of missing something we experienced, and we can't experience it again or we could have experienced it, but it didn't happen. For us, it is impossible not to feel "saudade" our son, even though he is with us. My wife and I won't see Nicolas do a lot of things that many parents would like to see. Your graduation, or your intellectual development, or our possible grandchildren. I would love for him to be able to read his books in my library! I would love to support him in his difficult times, but Nicolas has what Dr. Goldratt called an easy life. We take care of everything for him. I learned from TOC (and I owe a lot to her books) that all lives are worth living, from conception onwards. Even those lives that are interrupted prematurely, still in their formation, even those lives that have lived with us for an insufficient time, even those lives that are easy. We learn to live with "saudade" in a happy way, enjoying life, as our loved ones would like to enjoy. Living like this makes our lives (and theirs) more meaningful. We live life as a constant flow of love fueled by our assumptions, our way of seeing the world. In addition to TOC, we also incorporate the Stoic concepts of Memento Mori and Amor Fati. I just met Jenn and I already feel "saudade" about her. Joy for Nicolas' life, joy for Jenn's life! Hugs. Yuri, Francis and Nicolas. PS: I'm sorry for any miscommunication, I don't communicate very well in English.