Jennifer Inman

INMAN, Jennifer Ann Inman, age 60 of White, GA., passed away on February 24, 2012. Out of all of your suffering, you showed compassion and empathy to everyone. Pain never changed you. Jennifer is survived by her husband, David, and sons, Cory and Christopher.

Jennifer Ann Inman lived an incredible and Christ-like life. She was radical in her compassion and empathy for others. There were no boundaries to her love and compassion. This love and compassion grew out of the pain and suffering she went through every day. At age 8, she was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. At the time there weren’t very many treatments for this autoimmune disease. The pain and inflammation in every joint in her body would come and go when she was young and became more constant over time. Regardless of this thorn in her side, Jennifer pursued her passions with reckless abandon and excelled in everything she loved. She loved music her entire life and learned to play the clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, and the glockenspiel in school. She love all types of music from Barbara Streisan to Kansas, Journey, and Styx. She also loved being athletic and played many sports in high school, including basketball and softball. In her senior year at Oak Park H.S. (1969), she was the first female to be awarded the athlete of the year award. She was proud of this accomplishment every day of her life and would mention it to anyone, any time. After receiving a scholarship to play softball at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, her fight with rheumatoid arthritis began again. She worked at various high-end shoe stores in Kansas City and Chicago and partied the nights away with her friends in these cities.

She eventually came back to Kansas City and was introduced to her future Husband, David Inman by a mutual friend. In 1978, she asked David for help so she could go visit her Grandmother, Edith Johnson, in Chicago, IL. He wouldn’t let her go on the trip because he knew she couldn’t make it to Chicago on the funds she had, so he asked if she wanted to stay with him and his firefighter roommates. She accepted the offer and over the next two years their love for one another bloomed. He proposed in mid-May of 1980 and they got married the following week.

After 5 years of marriage they had their first son, Cory, and 13 months later they had their second son, Christopher, in Atlanta, GA. David continued to be a fire fighter in Atlanta and Jennifer worked at various jobs to give their sons a great life. Eventually, Jennifer took up the position of full-time Mom. She was as good as a Mom could be. Supportive, loving, and proud, but still let her children stumble and learn from their mistakes. All her children ever had to do to make her proud was wake up in the morning. Chris and Cory were her life. She never missed a baseball or basketball game or practice. When they were in high school and college, she never missed a marching band, drum and bugle corps, or winter guard show. While being an incredible Mom, she never stopped pursuing other interests. She focused her creativity making all sorts of items and sold them everywhere she could. She also focused her relentless energy and compassion on helping others who were suffering.

In 1989, she met a new friend who was suffering from kidney failure and didn’t have health insurance. She stopped everything and moved her entire family to Ringgold, GA to help. She made sure that her friend had health insurance so her friend could receive dialysis. Her friend survived for another 12 years because of this empathy and compassion. After a year helping her friend she moved back to Acworth, GA with her family and began spreading her compassion there. She didn’t bring in stray pets; rather she brought in stray people. She never met a suffering stranger she would not help. For the rest of her life she let people who were having hardships live with her family until they could get back on their feet. Regardless of circumstance she couldn’t let other people suffer like she did physically her entire life. Out of all of her physical pain and suffering, she derived compassion and empathy. She did everything she could to take the suffering of others on herself. She loved God and God worked through her to heal many suffering people. Her impact on others will live on forever through the good deeds that spread from her self-less acts.

Her family will remember her forever. She was always the life of the party and her presence will be sorely missed. We are glad that she no longer has to suffer and realize that it was through suffering that God worked through her. Life will never be the same without her, but we know that she is relishing her new life in heaven. She always called herself “The Breeze” and lived her life that way. She now lives on as the breeze that soothes one’s soul. We still can hear her in wind chimes and feel her kiss our face. We love you Mother, Wife, Sister, and daughter! We love you Jennifer Ann Inman!!!