Memorial Service for Joyce Petersen

It has been a tumultuous few years for the Petersen family. Two years ago, we lost our amazing dad. Early this year, we also lost our wonderful mom. She was healthy and symptom free (as well as undiagnosed) until the very end of her life. Although it certainly didn’t feel like it at the time, the speed of her decline in health was likely a tremendous blessing. For her, the inability to be active was almost as hard to fathom as not being able to play with and watch her grandchildren grow up. Ultimately, it was Stage IV lung cancer that took her away.

In October 2016, three months before her passing, she and Gracie went for an 18 mile hike (over 2 days). After that, she started to feel some stiffness and pain in her back that she attributed to her scoliosis, but was unable to relieve with chiropractic and massage therapies.  By November, the pain was severe enough that she went in for an x-ray, still thinking that scoliosis was the culprit. This led to discovering a mass in her lungs and metastizations in her thoracic spine and liver. She chose not to pursue any sort of conventional treatment and in fact, one of her doctors said that at this stage, chemo and radiation would be worse than the disease itself. Mom started to rapidly lose mobility, so Jasen found an in-patient clinic that provided several holistic treatments, and Tricia went to the facility with her.

These treatments significantly improved her breathing and slowed the decline in mobility, but by Christmas she was unable to bear any weight and was largely immobile from the chest down. Much of January was spent sleeping until she passed away on the morning of the 21st, two years and two days after we lost Dad.

We are planning a Celebration of Life service and a Memorial Hike to scatter her ashes on the beloved mountain that she and Dad have called home for the last decade. We would love for you to join us as we remember and honor her life. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

Celebration of Life / Memorial

Date: Saturday, 1 July 2017

Time: 5:00 pm

Location: Eudaimonia Human Flourishing Center

4471 Parmalee Gulch Road, Indian Hills, CO 80454

Memorial Hike

Date: Sunday, 2 July 2017

Time: 9:30 am

Harder Location: Pence Park Trailhead

4400 Parmalee Gulch Road, Indian Hills CO 80439

The hard version of the hike starts at Pence Park and heads up to the Petersen's house and then back down again for lunch at Eudaimonia.

Easier Time: 10:30 am

Easier Location: The Petersen's Home

25724 Independence Trail, Evergreen CO 80439

If you're not comfortable with a hike (~45 min) up the mountain then you're welcome to hike down. For anyone who can't figure out how to leave a car at Pence Park (or Eudaimonia) before driving to the Petersen's, we'll figure out how to get you back up to your car.

Easiest (no hiking) Time: 12:30

Easiest Location: Eudaimonia

4471 Parmalee Gulch Road, Indian Hills, CO 80454

For those who don't want to hike at all, we're all meeting back at Eudaimonia for lunch just after noon.