Elizabeth Anne Rosales Brenneise Navarro
As shared by her father, Ron Brenneise on February 27, 2021

On behalf of Franc, Ruth and me – thank you all for joining us today as we have this time to honor our Elizabeth. We cannot thank you enough for your kindness, generosity, support and care throughout this awful time. We have the most amazing people in our lives. And you honor us and Elizabeth beyond all belief. Thank you.

I am so very proud to say I am the father of an amazing human being, our Girly – Elizabeth Anne Rosales Brenneise Navarro. There is so much I want to tell you about our Elizabeth; such a miracle, so amazing, such a treasure and how much we love her.

Elizabeth wasn’t ready to be born on anyone’s schedule but her own. We waited three extra weeks to see her. Ruth’s doctor had a plan to induce labor after the weekend. Then, Elizabeth decided to begin her entry into the world late that same Friday night. After many hours of labor, the doctors decided Ruth needed to deliver by caesarian. I called Ruth’s parents from a phone booth outside the old Palmdale Hospital. This was the first time I cried for Elizabeth. I was so scared for Ruth and Elizabeth. I just broke down in the phone booth.

We hoped for a healthy child – we really wanted a girl. The night before she was born, the ultrasound technician, like those before him referred to the child as a “he.” We didn’t say anything and had a name ready for a boy. We were both delighted when Dr. Vora delivered our baby and said she was a girl. They asked for her name and we immediately announced “Elizabeth.” From a young age, I always knew I would have a daughter named Elizabeth. Ruth, too, loved the name Elizabeth. When Elizabeth couldn’t pronounce Elizabeth, it came out as “Elilabette” and we called her Lily. Somewhere early along the way, she became “Girly”, which stuck her whole life. She was our most perfect Girly, our most perfect gift, even when I called her “Child of the Corn.” When she finally saw the movie Children of the Corn, she said, “Dad! That’s why you called me this?” We laughed about this over the years, and it was one of my terms of endearment for her.

Her birth was difficult, she was stuck in the birth canal and born with a ring around her head – our princess came with a crown from God.

Early on, we realized Elizabeth was prone to illness. She was often on antibiotics fighting illness. The one thing she never caught was chicken pox. We kept exposing her, and yet she never got them. With all these medications and time, Elizabeth developed severe allergies to most antibiotics. We struggled to find ones she could take. She had every adverse reaction the warnings mentioned.

In July 2020, Elizabeth became seriously ill. Over the course of a couple of weeks, she lost the ability to hold even a cup and could not walk.

She was moved to a full-time care facility, Alderbrook, with an excellent medical support team. We still did not know the issue, cause, or treatment. She underwent painful nerve testing as they experimented with all forms of medication to relieve her pain levels. She was not able to even pull the sheet over herself, but she had an amazing team of physical and occupational therapists working to keep her strong even though she could not do anything on her own. She was fully reliant on her team for all of her care. They were caregivers, confidants, friends, and all-around wonderful, caring people.

Every test was performed, and in September, they rested on a diagnosis of Miller Fisher syndrome. They could not be 100% positive. It’s an autoimmune disorder in the Guillain-Barre family of syndromes. It can be triggered by an allergic reaction to an antibiotic – which did occur in late June over a sinus infection. Her neurological team pushed for approval for uncomfortable immunoglobulin treatments. She was so strong. She endured so much pain, fear, and hard work. She never gave up. We were at times hopeless.

One day, she told her care team that she wanted to try to stand up out of the wheelchair, and she did it. She was able to stand after months of being bed ridden. They immediately called us, and we went to see her take a step. This was another time I really cried for Elizabeth. She was so proud of herself, as were we. She was amazing. She continued to gain more coordination and some feeling in her hands. She wanted to be home before Halloween. She had another round of immunoglobulin. I was so scared and sure she wasn’t ready – she proved me wrong, even after she was home and her neurologist tried to convince her she needed to accept her limitations, she fought on. She rarely talked about how much pain she was still in. She was a trooper and wanted to be as normal as possible.

She and Franc went on a picnic at Apollo Park and fed the ducks. She told Ruth that while they were there, it was the first time she felt normal. Yes, she worked so hard.

Elizabeth continued to struggle with sinus infections and other maladies over the last year. In mid-January, she wasn’t feeling well. She didn’t know what was going on. She thought it was a sinus infection and was afraid to try any antibiotics. She quickly became seriously ill and was rushed to the hospital. They worked on her, looking for every option, but she passed away peacefully with Ruth and Franc at her side. We eventually learned she had an unknown serious underlying infection. She became septic and rapidly experienced multiorgan failure and passed away on January 20th.

However, we do not want her illness and passing to define our Elizabeth nor to be the end of her story. She is so much more. We want to fiercely remember her! Please help us.

As a baby, Elizabeth was so curious – she loved to be held, but not looking inward – always facing outward. She needed to know what was going on. She hated being undressed; she loved to be tightly bundled. When she had a diaper rash, her doctor said to let her go without a diaper – she would have nothing of that – she cried more about not having a diaper than the rash. You can imagine what bath time was like. Ruth’s dad was the only one she was calm with when having a bath. There was a beautiful connection between Elizabeth and both her grandfathers.

Elizabeth shared great times with her grandparents. She loved Ruth’s father, Papa often hid candies for Elizabeth to find. He had some medical issues and Elizabeth loved helping her Nana care for Papa. There was a special bond between them. Even though Papa went on to heaven when Elizabeth was young – I can still see their faces light up when they saw each other.

As we looked through so many photos to prepare for the sharing today and on the website. Almost every kitchen cooking and baking scene is with Nana. The matriarch who came to this country alone, went to university, had a lifelong career at Children’s Hospital and was an amazing mother and grandmother. Nana – thank you for fiercely loving and protecting our Elizabeth. She was strong, loving and kind from your example.

We were all so surprised and proud when she wanted to wear her grandmother’s dress as her wedding dress. This continued what became a tradition following in Nana Ruth’s and mother Ruth’s footsteps wearing the same beautiful dress. I know Nana had so much love, appreciation and joy when Elizabeth chose to honor her in wearing the dress she selected all those years ago.

Elizabeth also experienced a closeness with my father no one else ever did. Elizabeth was the light of his world. He saw only great possibilities in her and enjoyed nothing more than sitting and talking with this little girl from such an early age and having a bologna sandwich with American cheese and miracle whip. She had an opinion on everything – all the time.

When Elizabeth was 15, my father passed away. One day after his passing, we had been visiting Nana for the evening. Ruth and I planned a clandestine trip. We secretly packed for the three of us. We drove off in a different direction than our home – off to Orange county. Elizabeth, being 15, was oblivious as to where we were. We arrived at the hotel across from Disneyland and got out of the car. She exclaimed – “Where are we?” We said that in honor of my father, we were going to Disneyland the next day. On a fluke – we bought season passes and became a real Disney family. This started a tradition of buying passes for the next several years. Elizabeth ended up attending Cal State Fullerton and working at Disneyland. She was so cute in her gift shop uniform. We had some very happy days and Elizabeth made a lifelong friend there in one of her roommates. Friendships were important to Elizabeth and she also had a close friend from high school and youth group who with her college roommate were bridesmaids in hers and Franc’s wedding.

Elizabeth was never a sound sleeper. After her six-month old shots, her trust was broken, and she never would sleep alone. The first few nights I took her out of the crib, and we slept on the floor together. That quickly needed to change. We moved the sofa-sleeper mattress to the floor of her room where I started every evening asleep with Girly. My mother bought her – her first bedroom furniture. She was in her twin bed (with Ruth or me) by the time she was nine months old. She was quite good at tricking Ruth or me to fall sleep for bedtime or naps, then she’d get up and be wide awake exploring.

We did our best to put her to bed every night in her room, and she figured out how to escape her gate and would end up asleep, uncovered on the floor of our room. She was about two at the time. We took that rarely used, almost brand-new inner-spring Winne the Pooh crib mattress and her Little Mermaid sleeping bag and tucked them under our bed. She quickly learned to pull the mattress out and get into the sleeping bag. She preferred to be close to us for the next several years.

As much as Elizabeth loved to see and learn new things. This was not the case when it came to videos. We used to rent movies from the local drug store. Nine times out of ten, we would re-rent the movie we had just returned, My Little Pony. Her fascination with that movie baffled us. The drug store didn’t have any new Disney movies. Finally, when the Wherehouse opened in Palmdale and they were selling a used copy of The Little Mermaid for $89.99. That was a lot of money for us! Well, that became the movie we watched over and over for years. It was always her favorite! She occasionally added back in My Little Pony and Wild Hearts Can’t be Broken (a horse centric movie – even though she was afraid of horses.)

Elizabeth didn’t know the traditional version of any fairy tale as Ruth rewrote the books to make sure the women were seen as strong and capable. Elizabeth grew up without those societal restrictions. We wanted so much for our Girly. Elizabeth went to a private kindergarten and they expected to add a first-grade class which did not happen. Ruth stepped in and homeschooled Elizabeth from first to eleventh grade. In this time, we all had so many adventures from medieval studies ending in a costume feasts, sleep overs in the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Prairie campouts. We wanted Elizabeth to love education. It often wasn’t easy Elizabeth was strong willed and stubborn – there were times when Elizabeth would be at her school desk until 10 PM at night to finish assignments.

Ruth took on many responsibilities to offer Elizabeth the best life experience she could. She is an amazing mother. She loves her so much and her real desire was simply to spend time with our Girly. They shared such tender moments and struggles only mothers and daughters share. Ruth gave of herself fully opening every door she could to give that curious little girl insights into what can be. Thank you, Ruth, for being the most amazing mother to our most amazing girl. Know she loved you deeply. She wanted to be you and be filled with positivity. The reality was, she took on much of my reflective uneasy nature.

Elizabeth started as a Brownie Girl Scout in 1996. Ruth joined in to be a co-leader to ensure the troop could stay active. Elizabeth had so many adventures including a sleepover on a U.S. naval aircraft carrier. She made great friends in the Girl Scouts. When Elizabeth’s troop “bridged” from junior to senior high, they did that symbolically by walking across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. She later earned her Silver Award and eventually her Gold Award for creating Lancaster Presbyterian Church’s website. This was a huge project, and she was greatly assisted by her uncle Tio Ismael. The Gold Award is equivalent to the Boy Scout Eagle Scout Award.

Elizabeth loved having baby dolls. She loved caring for them. We encouraged her to play with her dolls as long as she wanted. We tried to find her dolls with brown hair, like hers. She loved to playhouse with her little kitchen and dolls. This spilled over to every baby around her. From a very young age, she was enamored by babies and babies were drawn to her.

When Elizabeth was six years old, we went on a mission trip with the church to do work at an orphanage in Tijuana. Ruth was the children’s and youth minister, so she was busy managing the event. When we entered Mexico, one of cars accidentally separated. The rest of us drove to the orphanage hoping the missing car would arrive. Elizabeth and I drove back and forth across the border for several hours hoping to find the lost people. This may have been the first time we realized Elizabeth had motion sickness. All of the driving and her trying to sleep in the car, essentially going in circles. When the car finally turned up and we could stop the search – Elizabeth was completely ill. She was crying and needed to be bathed. I took a shower in my clothes to get her cleaned up. Even so, the next day when I woke up, Elizabeth was no where to be seen. She was off with the other children – I found her holding a little baby in the nursery. She loved that experience.

We believe her experiences with children from a very young age led to her work in foster care. She started as a child advocate monitor. It was her responsibility to protect children when they met with their biological family members. Elizabeth shared stories where she had to come between the child and their parent. It scared Ruth and I but she never let on she was fearful. She fiercely protected those in her charge. Helping foster children was her purpose and passion.

Elizabeth loved to swim. She loved being in the water. When we moved into our house here in Lancaster, she finally had a pool. She was about to turn six years old. Though it was February I tried to explain that even though it was warm outside, it was too cold to swim. She eventually relented about not swimming and pointed out we had a blow-up rowboat. She put on her sweatshirt and pants over her bathing suit, put blankets in the boat, grabbed her baby doll, got in the boat, and floated around the pool. She was determined to get in that pool. And like most of her life – she got what she worked for! That February 25th on her birthday – Elizabeth had the gift of snow. Tio Noel was with us and it snowed heavily – all Elizabeth wanted to do for her birthday was play in the snow and go to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal.

When Elizabeth was born, we already had a cat, Daisy. Ruth who is allergic to cats rescued the cat. Daisy was the most pliable of cats! Ruth did warn the cat before Elizabeth arrived that if the cat did anything to the baby, Ruth would take her out! For the few months Elizabeth slept in her crib, we could find Daisy guarding Elizabeth. Elizabeth dragged Daisy around the house when she was crawling and when she started walking, she would carry daisy over her shoulder. Daisy never once did anything to Elizabeth. They were quite a pair. Elizabeth was four and devastated when we had to put Daisy to sleep. She was crying hysterically until the doctor brought out a piece of tumbleweed that he took from her lung. Once she understood what had happened – she was able to move forward.

After we moved, Elizabeth and I wanted another cat. We promised Ruth that the cat would only live in Elizabeth’s room. Of course, you know that lasted all of two days. Outside of the Target, we adopted the new cat, Tiger Lily – known as Tiger and eventually called Boo – though no one knows exactly how nor when his name changed.

We still had our dog Daffodil (Daffy) – the sweetest most “daffy” dog that ever existed. Elizabeth was scared of Daffy when Daffy was a puppy. Once daffy was bigger however, and could easily knock Elizabeth down, Elizabeth suddenly loved Daffy. One side of our yard was street facing, when Elizabeth would swing in the back yard, Daffy would run laps around her to protect her. That dog worshipped Elizabeth and learned to love tomatoes. I couldn’t keep Elizabeth from picking tomatoes, every year and force feeding them to Daffy. Well, Daffy lived to 15 and went to sleep forever out by our pool – just like she loved to do every day – perhaps green tomatoes are good for dogs.

I’ll admit I had questionable judgement of some things. For example, Elizabeth had an amazing dry sense of humor. While Ruth was busy with Youth Group on Sundays, Elizabeth and I would watch the British comedy series, Absolutely Fabulous. She was way too young to be seeing such things but she was so smart and understood so much of the show; we would laugh and laugh over that show and so much more. When the movie came out a few years ago, she called me and asked me to go with her. At that time, she was an adult, and we could have cocktails and use Uber. We had an amazing evening. I so miss hearing her laughter – experiencing her wit. She could really tell a story and she’d be the first to tell you she was “hilarious!”

Elizabeth grew up in the church. We opted to have her dedicated as a child, allowing her to be baptized when she understood what it meant and made the choice to be a Christian for herself. She was dedicated at Palmdale Presbyterian Church. Elizabeth was baptized, ordained as an elder, married… and now memorialized in this sanctuary at Lancaster Presbyterian Church. She deeply believed in and loved God and Christ. She felt great joy and love here. She really did grow up in the church.

Elizabeth did not, however, love athletics. We tried so many different things to get her involved. She settled into soccer. She didn’t love it, but she humored us through it. One particular year – her team kept winning. They won into the cold – ok freezing and wet months. In one playoff weekend, they played six games over the two days. She physically cried so badly in the car about how much she wanted to lose. They did not take the top spot but came in third in the league. Even with the high placement and being in the annual Lancaster Christmas parade every year, soccer eventually became a definite N-O!

Elizabeth moved on to Dance which she loved. She attended dance classes at Dance Magic, jazz, hip hop, ballet. She performed at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center every year, was featured at the Antelope Valley Fair, and again was in the annual Christmas parades. Elizabeth made great friends with the teachers and students! This is where I learned all about big hair and big make-up. Elizabeth wanted to take advantage of the glitz and glamour. The photo shoots and dress rehearsals were always on Sundays. With Ruth working on Sundays, I had to ensure Elizabeth was as glamourous and fancy as all the other girls! She was so adorable and funny directing me through her hair and make-up sessions. She always knew exactly what she wanted.

In the midst of dance, Elizabeth found music. We tried a few years of keyboard lessons. She just never loved it. She did love singing! She joined the Sing 4 Joy community choir and toured with Mrs. Palmer as her director. She had a beautiful voice. She joined the Desert Christian High School Choir in high school and continued singing. We were blessed to hear her sing praise and worship music here in this sanctuary as a child in many plays and later with the worship team. I miss how her soft, sweet, gentle side of her spirit came through in her singing.

We were so fortunate our Girly still wanted to spend time with us as an adult. She would come over to visit, swim, do her shopping from our pantry and refrigerator, have dinner, or just hang out. She’d call sometimes and ask me to make her favorite foods from childhood, my tuna salad, egg salad, macaroni salad, potato corn chowder, my grandmother’s tomatoes and noodles dish, and, of course, Jell-O – Jell-O was always a feel-good food I made when Elizabeth wasn’t well.

What I know now is there are truly no guarantees for another minute. There is ever enough time with those you love. I encourage you to grab ahold of those you love – make sure they hear your eulogy for them from you, now. Choose to love and forgive them over an over.

The idea behind the purple flags shared today – and we will send to any who’d like them across the country – is there a place you spent time with Elizabeth, make it with a flag. Is there a place you think she would have loved to see, mark it with a flag. Write a message if you choose. Take a photo and share with us if you choose. Help us to remember Elizabeth always.

Elizabeth brought Franc into our family in 2013. Franc has the fiancée’s and husband perspective of our Elizabeth. I know she was a handful – we raised her that way. Franc please share the Elizabeth you knew – share your love story. We are so grateful Elizabeth found you, the love of her life and was able to find great joy with you.