Jeff's Eulogy
Good evening. I’d like to begin by thanking Monique for all the work she’s done since last Thursday in letting Lisa’s friends past and present, both in the U.K. and in the U.S., know of her passing. I am tremendously appreciative that she tracked me down all the way out here in Michigan.
I’m sorry I can’t be there tonight, but I’d still like to say a few words in memory of Lisa. My name is Jeff Cosier (Ko-zher) and I had the pleasure of meeting Lisa in late 1993 while at University in Indiana. She had just returned from an internship in Florida and from the very beginning I was smitten. She was absolutely beautiful, and after the better part of an evening getting my courage up, I asked her out on a date while we both stood in the dish-room of a steakhouse at which her and I both worked.
Much to my surprise, she said yes.
We began dating, and we stayed together for the next five years. Throughout those five years, our lives took us collectively through five U.S. states. We both worked in retail, her on the corporate side and me on the field management side, so we weren’t always in the same city at the same time, but we persevered and those five years left me with an endless supply of fond memories.
One memory in particular has stood out over the years as being representative to me of who Lisa was inside. In 1996, Lisa and I were living in a small, two room apartment on the west side of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lisa loved to roller-blade and decided, that autumn, to get involved in a roller-blading trip for charity. She would start out on a trail just north of St. Paul and, in the span of two days, roller-blade her way up to Duluth, Minnesota. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the geography of Minnesota, it is roughly 150 miles, or 245 kilometers from St. Paul to Duluth. When she asked me if I wanted to be involved in this endeavor, I just laughed, muttered something to her to the tune of her having a screw loose, and told her I’d happily drive my car to Duluth and pick her up.
She spent the weeks before the “tour”, as they called it, happily gathering pledges and donations for the representative charity. When the day finally came to get rolling (sorry), it was cold, windy and rainy. Not an altogether uncommon day for east-central Minnesota in autumn. Lisa, however, was all sunshine. Her big, ear-to-ear smile lit up the gymnasium where the skaters were suiting up for the two day trip. At around 8:00am, she and about 100 others started off for Duluth.
The next day, I drove up Interstate 35 toward the “finish line” not knowing what to expect. The wind and rain hadn’t let up and it was still cold and altogether ugly outside. I pulled into a gravel lot next to the paved trail and waited for her to arrive. After about an hour of waiting, in the misty distance I saw a blond-haired girl skate around a wide curve about a half kilometer away. As she got closer, I could tell it was Lisa and I’ll be damned if she didn’t STILL have that ear-to-ear smile on her face. Two days and 245 kilometers left her dirty, cold, and soaked to the bone but it couldn’t shake the smile off of her face.
And that’s how I remember her. Driven, strong, inspiring, and the owner of a huge, contagious smile.
I loved her for those qualities and so many more. She touched my life, and I feel that I am a better person for having spent five years of my life with Lisa Hollingsworth. To this day I’ll oftentimes find myself repeating one of the many mannerisms that we shared together and it always makes me smile. She was a wonderful human being who will live on in my heart and the hearts of the many other people who she touched over the years.
Godspeed, Lisa. Thank you for all the wonderful memories that you have left me with. I shudder to think of what my life would be like had you not been a part of it.
You will be missed.
