Obituary of Jenna Thurston Nash

Written By Caroline Nash There is not much else I can say today, but here are the words I was somehow able to get our at my Mom's service today: Jenna Foster Thurston Nash is one of the greatest humans to have ever graced this Earth. I know I'm her daughter, but I'm saying this without complete bias. She was perfect. A lot of people say so and s was perfect, but she truly was. If unicorns exist, and I think they do, she was that. My Mother was a perfect unicorn. From her hair to her ageless skin and compassionate soul, she was perfect. I was sitting with her in the hospital telling her that people pay millions of dollars for that skin, but she didn't have to do a thing at all, because everything with her was effortless. If you know my Mother, the you know that All My Children was a constant in her life. Before I can even remember attending kindergarten, I remember my mother introducing me to the world of Erica Kane and the rest of Pine Valley. This culminated into a huge moment in the mall in Monroe when I was a toddler, where she attempted to jump start my acting career. She told me this story many times throughout my life of attending this Meet and Greet and meeting all of my Mother's Favorite soap stars and she was also attempting to schmooze my way in to a role on the show. Unfortunately, she found out since I did not have a twin sibling to comply with child labor laws, this dream was not going to pan out just yet. Mom, I'm sorry that I couldn't ever help you achieve your dream of being best friends with Susan Lucci, but I'm so grateful that you got to see her break her losing streak in 2000 at the Daytime Emmy's. My Mother's endless enthusiasm for life and the people that surrounded her in it knew no bounds, which you could hear in her laugh as it carried in a room. Her laugh was a perfect song, the melody was her joy at whatever she was laughing at. Her sense of humor was one of my favorite things and is probably one of the reasons why I got in to comedy, because I do not know a single person with better comedic timing than my mother, whether it would be something she did in person or it was something that happened over her countless attempts to text. On top of her laugh, we both shared the trait of crying easily at any important moment, film, or puppy video. My Mom and I had started a tradition when I was in college, to go see a movie on Christmas afternoon together. In the midst of all of the activity that happened on this day, we had 2-3 hours that was just for the two of us whether it was the funniest film or a sob fest. One of my favorite memories of those afternoons was in 2012 when we saw Les Miserables on Christmas Day, which is the most uplifting film that you could see on a day like that. At one point during the film, I looked over at her and she was sobbing and I rubbed her shoulder and then she topped soon afterwards, then the n the tears were passed off to me. It was cathartic crying emotional musical chairs and is just one of those memories I'm going to hang on to and one of the greatest lessons that my Mom taught me-to not be afraid of my tears-sometimes you just have to let it out and cry, instead of keeping everything bottled up inside. The mother - daughter bond is one of the most precious treasured things, you can have in this world and I truly lucked out with he best Mom anyone could ever wish for. I can think of the countless afternoons we spent together in the dressing room at Belk, while she watched me try on every single on of the 30 dresses I had picked out and she never ever complained and would tell me I look great in every single one of them, even the truly heinous ones, because she was perfect. She taught me all of the most important lessons - that kindness is the root of everything and though she may have never explicitly said it, but I learned it by watching that you have to learn to be strong and courageous on your own, because you may not always have the ones you love to fall back on. It was this lesson that gave me the strength to move to Chicago and make a home where I only knew 5 people and pursue my dreams, This did unfortunately mean that we didn't get to talk to or see each other nearly as much as I wished, but that didn't mean that she wasn't always there with me. She is the only person I've ever cared to impress and wanted to make happy, but I didn't even need to do that much, because to her I was already more than enough. We used to watch Gilmore Girls together all of the time and there's a quote from there that I think perfectly describes how I feel about my mom: "My mother never gave me any idea that I couldn't do whatever I wanted to do or be whomever I wanted to be. She filled our house with love and fun and books and music, unflagging in her efforts to give me role models from Jane Austen to Eudora Welty to Patti Smith. As she guided me through these incredible eighteen years, I don't know if she ever realized that the person I most wanted to be was her. Thank you, Mom: you are my guidepost for everything." you are my guidepost for everything - which is just an incredibly true sentiment. Every action or thought that I make is because she gave me the courage to do it. My Mother's favorite song was "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music. And when I think of my favorite things about my Mom, they are, how selfless she was, the immense amount of love she had for each and every single person in this room, her laugh, the crinkles around her eyes when she smiled, how she gave me the gift of Carole King, the Carpenters, and the Sound of Music, they joy of her every movement, her dedication to the church, our discussions about silly things like the Kardashians, and our relationship - and those are my favorite things about my Mom and when I think about them I won't feel so bad.