Hello Family and Friends,
We are inviting you to attend the Celebration of Life for Donna Kirkpatrick
You are welcome to extend this invitation to others you know who have been touched by Donna's amazing life.
Sunday, August 28th at 2pm
Normandale Hylands United Methodist Church 9920 Normandale Blvd, Bloomington, MN
Reception to follow
My mom, Donna, what do I do say about her. She is an amazing woman of God. She taught me everything I know as a person and a child of God. I don't know if I can put her story in a few paragraphs, but here we go.
My mom was born February 13th, 1956 in Honolulu, Hawaii. She grew up in a very close knit family who stood for love and family. However, my mom didn't just extend that love toward family. She extended it to everyone she came across every single day of her life. My nana use to tell me that my mom would bring home stray people instead of stray animals. She would call home during school and tell her mom that so and so will be coming over for dinner because they didn't have place to go that night. That is who my mom was. No matter what was going on she always had room in her life for people. She made a career of it. She became a well known social worker first in Honolulu. She worked in Child Protection Services which is the hardest but rewarding field a social worker can work.
She had everything except one thing a husband and family. That is one thing my mom desired more than anything. Instead of settling like most people, she took a leap of faith and left her little island to embark the big California to find him. She made a deal with God that she would do 3-5 years on "Mainland" and then go home. After 3 years, my mom was fed up with all guys. She was going home and didn't care if she didn't' meet him. She told God, "Can't a guy just asked me to go to a baseball game or something instead of a movie and dinner?" One night, she met my dad in the most unexpected ways. At a mutual friend's birthday party that neither of them wanted be at in the first place. Guess what, my dad asked her to a ball game instead of a movie and dinner. Isn't God amazing, funny and mysterious? That what is start to an amazing journey of love and faith.
Once married on November 19th 1989, they were called to Minnesota. Yes, you are reading correctly. Instead of my mom going home, she moved further away. They were coming to start a children's radio station, Radio Oz, but God had different plans like always. About 2 years after I was born, my parents were called into ministry full time. They took my dad's background of theatre and my mom's background of social work and put it together to build almost 30 year ministry, Homeward Bound Theatre Company. My mom took her love for people and helped hundreds of teenagers/young people navigate the hardships of life in a healthy, Godly way. She taught them how to stand for what is right and do the hard thing instead of succumb to peer pressure and the expectations of the world. Not only did they help the young people that came to them; they empowered them to take what they learned and help others too. They traveled around the upper Midwest to schools, churches, youth camps etc. teaching other young people and adults how to navigate the world through drama and testimonial speaking. I saw countless of times over my years of growing up around the ministry young people come from terrible families or have unfortunate circumstances such as abusive homes, suicidal etc. be used by God to help their peers in similar situations. What my parents created was amazing to be a part of.
However, I want to focus on the things that most people didn't see. Being my mom's daughter I saw everything. I experienced everything. I am about to give you an incite on who my mom was. My parents were called in ministry which is very rewarding but not in ways that you think. My parents, especially my mom, lived by faith every single day of my life. We never knew where money would come from. We never knew if we would be living in our house the next month. We never knew if I would be going back to school the next year as I went to private school. We literally took one day at a time. My mom lived by faith. It was who she was. She had her own prayer room in our house. She would pray for everyone she loved and more, but never asked for anything in return. She took care of her family, she took care of her friends, and she did whatever God called her to do. She taught me to live that way as well. Even when it would be understandable to be angry at God or question what He is doing, she was steadfast.
Here we are now to the moment you are waiting for. The reason why we are on Caring Bridge, but before I tell you that. I need to give you a little family history. Cancer has been a family killer since before I was born. My great grandfather, my mom's grandfather, died of cancer before I was born. My uncle, my mom's brother, died of brain cancer on June 11, 2011. My nana, my mom's mom, died of lung cancer on December 15, 2016. Cancer has been a rough one for our family especially for my mom. On April 15, 2022, my mom was rushed to hospital on my parents trip visiting family in Hawaii. They found blood clots in her body which was stopping blood flow to her brain which was dealt with through emergency surgery where they found 2 tumors. After waiting a long time with biopsy results, she was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer.
If you would like to also give financially, click above on "Ways to Help", then "GoFundMe"
Or you can click on the link below:
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https://www.gofundme.com/f/donna-kirkpatricks-medical-expenses?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=caringbridge&utm_campaign=partners_cp)
