https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kF4AUbEfTU
Emilie
Jean Newman
September 25, 1971 ~ August 26, 2025
Good morning, everyone. This is a hard day for my family as we say a final earthly goodbye to my sister Emilie. She wouldn’t want us to dwell on sadness though. We are starting with one of her favorite hymns, which is pretty much a favorite family hymn. In this hymn I wrote two additional verses, and when you see it in print, those verses are numbers seven and eight. Forgive my shaky vocals, please.
Song: Amazing Grace
1. Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.
2. T’was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.
3. Through many dangers toils and snares I have already come. Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.
4. The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion be, as long as life endures.
5. Yea when this flesh and heart shall fail, and mortal life shall cease. I shall possess within the veil a life of joy and peace.
6. The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forebear to shine. But God, who called me here below, shall be forever mine.
7. A dream of love I hold it here, hidden deep within my soul. Found in a heart of gold so dear, with life its only goal.
8. May life itself be found to be as much a dream as true. If only I were blessed to see, the blessed sight of You.
9. When we've been here ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun.
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
(Matthew 6:9-13)
Emilie Jean Newman was born on Saturday, September 25, 1971, in Missouri. She was the second child of John Mark and Ann L. Newman. At the time she had one older sister, Laura Ann. She grew up in Missouri, the second of nine children. Her siblings are and were Laura, Lisa, Cathy, Scott, Debbie, Alicia, Matthew, and Tony. Her sister Alicia, and her father J. Mark, left this side of life before she did.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025, was a wake-up call none of us was prepared for. Our amazing, super self-sufficient sister, Emilie Jean Newman, was found deceased in her bed at 4:00 AM Arizona time. She would have celebrated her 54th birthday on September 25, 2025, just one month away.
She had been working for CCNS there in Glendale, AZ for only the past eight months. She had just returned to Surprise, AZ in February after spending 2022 through 2024 here in the state of Georgia with her two boys Joseph, known as Joey, and August, known as Auggie. Emilie had worked with CCNS, the Children’s Center for Neurodevelopmental Studies, for quite a while and her sons are, and were, students there.
Emilie was born and raised in Missouri. She attended school at first in Florissant, Missouri, and then in the magnet schools of the city of St. Louis. She graduated and attended University of Central Missouri getting her Master’s Degree, in Special Education Administration. She spent her whole life there in Missouri until the year 2001 when she moved to Surprise, and Glendale, Arizona to work as a Special Education Administrator and Teacher. Emilie had been a Special Education Teacher for quite a while, a mission created out of the lifetime of our youngest sister, Alicia Marie, who passed away in 1993 as a result of her disabilities. Emilie achieved her BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst) Certification in 2016. She had worked in places like Imagine Rosefield, Buckeye Union High School and The Children’s Center for Neurodevelopmental Studies in Glendale, Arizona.
Every single one of us was impacted by this event, the loss of our youngest sister Alicia, in our lives in different and diverse ways. Where Emilie became a teacher for special needs, I became a writer and a minister. Our other siblings, Lisa, Cathy, Scott, Debbie, Matthew, and Tony, all went in different directions, physically and educationally as well. Lisa went into business. Cathy went into management. Scott also went into a different form of management. Debbie became a teacher and a writer. Matthew also went into business and Tony did as well. Though we don’t see each other often, and some of us haven’t in far too many years, there is always a connection between us. Most of us are married with our own families and flourishing in the areas where we each chose to spend our lives. Emilie chose Arizona, at first because she had Mom and Dad and a connection there. She stayed and flourished, adopting her two children and growing up with her own family.
Emilie loved school, despite her own learning disabilities, and did a great job getting through her studies, even with the upheaval after losing our sister Alicia. That only made her more determined to get the degree she had set her sights on. She worked through her heartbreak and, despite everything that had happened, managed to graduate with her much wanted degree in Special Education. She found ways to transform her heartbreak into a mission in life, and she was successful there.
Emilie adopted Joseph Emilio Newman when he was three years old there in Arizona and I remember meeting him in 2007 when he was still a little boy. He had a rough time staying calm in the car on the long vacation trip with Emilie and our parents with Tony as well. Emilie adopted August Christopher Newman when he was three years old or so and Joey was about nine years old at the time. I got to meet Auggie, as he is affectionately known, in 2018 when Emilie flew me out to Arizona to watch the boys while she went to a mandatory conference and everyone else was out of town. There is, as there was, so much to remember for both of them. Even when they moved out here to Georgia in 2021, my husband Ron and I watched the boys on several occasions, both here at our house and over at their house as well. We shared holidays and birthdays at their house or ours but had our own lives to lead.
It was rough growing up with both of the boys because they are, as they were, special needs children. Though they are now grown age wise, there are still needs that they have on a daily basis and we will miss having Emilie’s guidance with and for them. Emilie leaves behind a legacy that not many realize. She went back to school, even with a master’s degree, she went back to school to get her BCBA, which is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst Certification. Like all of her other education, she fought long and hard for the certification. It wasn’t easy, but, as Emilie told me many times, well worth the time and effort.
Emilie had specific loves in her life. She loved working with special needs children. She loved and adored her two boys. She loved her dogs, of which she had several over the years. She loved music and specifically shared a deep love of Frank Sinatra with our father. She loved to read and write and would often ask my opinion, and that of our mother and others in the family, whenever it was something important, she was writing about.
Emilie liked to explore whenever she was on vacation. She would spend time at the beach here in Georgia, visit museums like the Mighty Eighth Airforce Museum and others. She spent a week on a trip by train with the boys exploring the country. She also loved working with the veterans everywhere and was just getting back into the swing of things with the VFW Auxiliary post 285 there in Surprise, Arizona before she left this side of existence.
I was going back through her posts on Facebook and her messages to me on my phone and realized I had not seen or heard from her except for a school post on the first day of school other than to let me know she had been quite sick, and they couldn’t figure out what exactly was going on. So, learning on Tuesday that she was gone was more than a little shock for all of us. The last few months of her life were spent in doctors’ offices and the hospital emergency room. It was not an intended part of the reintroduction to Arizona Emilie was hoping for.
Over there in Arizona, where the family has gathered without me, I hope they’re listening to her Frank Sinatra collection. Like our Daddy, Emilie epitomized the song “I Did It My Way”. Something Emilie could always be relied on about was her ability to take in things about people and file them away and save them for rainy days. For example, she knew I love rainbows, stuffed animals, unicorns, writing poetry and music, and the Bible. That’s why, whenever she needed to write something, she would bounce ideas off of me, no matter what she was writing. Emilie did that for newsletters, and all kinds of other things. I think that’s one of the things I will miss the most. Emilie’s favorite things were horses, music, dogs, children of all sizes, shapes, and abilities, and various United States Veteran causes.
Emilie knew exactly what was going through each of her boys’ heads at any given moment and could catch them before they’d get into something faster than I have ever seen anyone manage in my life, except me when my kids were under the age of nine or so. When I was sick, not knowing what was wrong with me, her presence was there. Whether it was her calling me or writing me an email, she was there. I wish I could have been more present for her while she has been so sick for the past several months. I had her on my personal prayer list for years but had doubled my efforts recently. I hadn’t been keeping her on the ministry prayer list because she hadn’t updated me in two months, so I didn’t know what to say as to how things were going. I think that is one thing I will probably regret for the rest of my life.
If I were to put Scripture of any form in this for Emilie, it would be these verses.
Ecclesiastes 12:10 –The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.
Matthew 10:24– “The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master.”
One passage that struck me as I was writing this is another from later on in the same chapter of Matthew.
Matthew 10:28-30 - “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
I seem to remember Emilie asking me a long time ago what these verses meant. I think she fulfilled the meaning even in the suddenness of her leaving this side of existence. She went to Him wearied and burdened in need of rest. May you rest in peace, little sister. I will forever miss you until time comes to meet again.
Dear Heavenly Father,
We bring to You our sister, Emilie Jean. Take care of her with Your Son Jesus Christ and send Your Holy Spirit to all of those who will miss her here on this earth. We pray that Your strength holds her strong and secure until the day we all meet again. Help each of us who have to say farewell for now with our spiritual strength, our physical hearts, and our memories and tears as they are cried. Bring us the peace to know that Emilie Jean is out of pain, feels no more sorrow, and has no more worries. Protect her sons Joseph and August as they learn how to get through this tragic set of circumstances. Protect the heart of her mother Ann and her siblings Lisa, Cathy, Scott, Debbie, Tony and I, along with our families as they too learn to navigate life without Emilie’s presence filling their lives. Guide her colleagues and the students that are and were impacted by Emilie’s life through their grief and give them the hope that she always evoked through her work. Help us to be reminded that Your Word is our Strength. Your Spirit is our Hope. Your Love is Unconditional and Everlasting. Your Compassion is ever present for those of us who need it the most. We pray all this in Your Holy Name through our Savior Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.
Click to enlarge the photo of Emilie's Poem "Missing Your Light".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuODLUurWDk
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