Sara Louise Willis Cox Glenn, also known as Sara Lou, was born on her due date, February 28, 1964, during a leap year. A dimpled, dark haired beauty, she was the third daughter of Jim and Martha Willis.
Sara’s childhood was a happy one, filled with fun times with her built in playmates of two older sisters and eventually 2 younger sisters and finally a brother. A favorite home movie is of Sara hopping all over the yard in her flouncy Easter jacket which by the way was a favorite mode of transportation for her. Christmas time found her playing elves while running through the house with her long, knitted cap. Another playtime favorite was the make believe game of playing house, with the older and bossy “Mrs. Beep-a-lop-a-boo” played by younger sister Diane. Sara also liked to dance around in Indian head dress and moccasins with bells tied to her ankles with her siblings. But the most memorable game was when Becky was “Diana Prince”, Sara played her counter part “Wonder Woman” and ran around with a cape tied to her neck, foil wrapped around her waist and wrists saving the world from evil villains. Later on, her favorite activity was sitting in a corner next to her very own stereo that she bought with her own hard earned money saved from her first job, as a teenager. She would sit there, feet moving, eyes closed, rocking back and forth, moving to the music. Those feet never stopped moving. School was an extension of play time as Sara’s academic accomplishments attest to, except in math where she excelled.
All through our childhood, we all sang songs together, especially on long car rides. Mom remembers the singing all the way home fromShenandoah,VirginiatoLanham,Maryland(a two hour drive) with out ever singing the same song twice. Sara developed a love for music early on and she was pitch perfect since the age of 3 when she was first recorded singing “Jesus Loves Me” flawlessly by Dad on reel to reel recording. This love of music grew when all stood around the piano singing favorite songs on Friday nights and this love never faded. She carried this love over to singing songs to her children when they were little, to leading song service in church to Karaoke nights out and also in friends’ homes, ending with playing “name that tune” on one of her final days in hospice with all of her siblings.
After school, Sara married and devoted her life to raising her two daughters having little to no interest in learning to drive until she was 23 when she finally obtained her driver’s license. She was terrified of running out of gas so due to this fact, you would never see her tank less than ¼ full. It was around this time that Sara began to work at Bookland where she quickly became a Jeopardy type expert in every book and every author available.
When Sara found herself single, raising Sam and Jen, she moved back into her childhood home with Mom and Dad to gather herself and was then able to send her girls to Adventist school. When Mom and Dad moved to South Carolina Sara was forced to truly move out on her own. This found the trio inLothian,Marylandin a single plus wide trailer, complete with a hole in the bathroom floor. By the way, there was also a hole in the car floor. It was at this time she began to attend theWaldorfSDAChurch.
Sara dealt with many frustrations and struggles throughout her life, abusive and broken relationships, a home that needed major repairs, broken down cars, being a single mother, working long hours to make ends meet. And despite all of her difficulties, Sara always remained faithful to God and raised her girls in the faith. She was known to say “Good things happen to good and bad people, the same as bad things happen to good and bad people so why should I question what is happening to me.”
One day at church 17 years ago, Sara’s beautiful smile caught the eye of a special someone who soon became her husband. She and Mark were married on a beautiful spring day in 1999 and were inseparable until this past Friday. They wrapped up repairs on the trailer inMaryland, sold it and found a beautiful home on a lake here inFloridawhere they have called home for the past 13 years. Sara left her job at Books-A-Million to become a Medicare billing expert and a “do it all Jane” for a family run durable medical equipment business, which led to her last job, collecting insurance claims for Hospital Corporation ofAmerica.
You may have noticed in the program we have several texts that mention unicorns. Sara had a real love for unicorns all her life and was really intrigued that they are actually mentioned in the Bible. In her final days, she asked us to share these verses with you. She also loved that fire breathing dragons are mentioned in the Bible but we will leave it up to you to look these verses up for yourself.
Sara had a true love for camping and insisted on friends young and old to join her. She even had the Boria family convinced they could go later this year (in a camper) even though they hate anything that has to do with the out of doors. She has solid promises from folks, including one of the younger church members, Justice and one of her last nurses, to camp with her when they finally meet up in heaven.
Growing up, Sara spent every summer at the swim club we belonged to, learning how to swim, supposedly, but apparently she never did gain that skill. It was during an excursion to Anclote Key when the sea-doo broke down, leaving Sara stranded with Samantha during low tide. They received a ride almost to shore but because of the low tide, the boat couldn’t make it all the way in and they decided to wade to shore. It looked easy enough but there turned out to be a very deep channel in the middle of the pathway and Sara panicked admitting she couldn’t swim, refusing to take the lifejacket from her Navy trained, swimming expert of a daughter, just to keep Samantha safe. Last week, while remembering the story she sang Dory’s song “just keep swimming, swimming, swimming” adding an extra “aaaa, aaaa, aaaa” to note her panic of the deep water. This gave us all something more to laugh at with her.
We enjoyed our time together right up until the end. She enjoyed sleepovers at Hospice with various people, different every night, singing her favorite songs with siblings and always being the hostess with the mostest, reminding us that there were donuts available, suggesting that we put waters in the fridge in case someone wanted a cold one, telling visitors to sit and be comfortable, and she actually asked us to stop eating the cookies because she was afraid the volunteers were spending their own money on them.
Sara remained optimistic about receiving a cure but accepted God’s will for her and said her goodbyes, made her peace and had no regrets. This is not the end of Sara’s story but only a pause. We hold onto the knowledge that we will all meet up with her by those pearly gates, camping gear in hand.