Cheri Lucas Jennings

First post: Sep 29, 2020 Latest post: Oct 13, 2020
Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.


After teaching thousands of students in dozens of courses at universities in Hawai'i, California, Montana and primarily the Evergreen State College in Washington, Cheri and I have been living a much less frenetic retired life in Santa Rosa, California.  While we are again dodging fires, evacuations and electrical disruptions - we also confront a more enduring yet familiar  challenge emerging since I first met the love of my life more than forty years ago in the islands.


Many of you are familiar with Cheri being a life-long, Type 1 diabetic.  Some of you also know that for several decades Cheri  has managed an increasingly complex array of health challenges.  Our visits to emergency rooms and hospitals has grown with increasing frequency and often with a yet more difficult twist whether a temporary paralysis, broken limbs, an organ transplant, a mild stroke, or cardiac events.   As various of her doctors have commented over many year, Cheri's longevity and survival is quite remarkable given her numerous challenges extending over so many years.  Or - as a much older couple of very close friends from Hawai'i once responded upon learning only some of Cheri's medical history, "So you're the one sucking up all of the health resources in this country !" 


Despite Cheri's many successes with managing her health, she is now under the care of a local hospice group.  Neither Cheri nor I are greatly surprised.  We knew this day would arrive many years ago; which isn't to say we are even now fully prepared.  Your words would help us with what have become more difficult days.

As Cheri's storied life is drawing to a close, I am asking friends, colleagues and others to contribute short reflections/stories/pictures or just comments as a celebration of her life.  Always one to shun praise, the time has finally arrived to impress her with your eloquence or even borrowed phrases employed by others.  Not to worry, your words will not be peer reviewed or returned with red marks and marginal comments.

After spending a few days recently at Kaiser, Cheri is resting comfortably at our home in Santa Rosa to enjoy final days.  While  it would be great for more direct contact, Cheri is not quite up to responding to phone calls or emails -- but I know she would love to hear from so many of you.,  If you would do her the great favor or writing something here, I promise to convey your message.  I should hasten to add: time is of the essence.

I will try my best to keep you posted displaying some of her art, excerpts from her unpublished children's books, and maybe even a recipe from her first self-published cookbook displaying the culinary artistry of students and faculty at the University of Hawai'i.


Cheri and I send our warmest aloha and thanks for joining us this timely celebration of her life -




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