Jody’s journey – fighting cancer
Monthly Updates
September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February
January 2023 | December | October/November
The March 16th Fundraiser at OCC Road House
(Bert’s Harley-Davidson – Clearwater)
THANK YOU page
GoFundMe page setup by our daughter Ashlee
Jody has passed away – 9-4-23 at 2:47PM
Added 9/18/23 – Jody’s Tribute Page
9/16/24 – 1 year has passed since the Celebration of Jody’s life
9/4/24 – Hard to believe it’s been a year already (. This past year has shown me that time can pass by so fast, but yet slow at the same time.
Life took a hard turn on us after 40 years of a loving relationship.
I’m making the best of it though. The moments still come up. I still carry a lot of guilt of how everything went starting 12/22. It was the toughest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I did do the best I could to care for you.
So many wonderful memories we shared through the 40 years we were together.
Your legacy as a loving wife and mother to our wonderful daughter will endure, offering comfort and inspiration on this solemn anniversary.
God wanted you before we were ready, but I know you are in a better place.
Your wings were ready, but our hearts were not.
Facts and tid-bits….
-Jody was born in Sarasota, Florida
-We met at Madeira Beach right in front of “Archibald’s” (Snack Shack)
-We were married October 5th, 1985 at Church by the Sea on Madeira Beach (the chicken church)
-Jody really enjoyed raising and releasing the Monarch butterflies. She had raised and released over 500 before her condition took over. I took them over, but there was quite the dry spell. Before she passed, I had found one caterpillar since June which turned to a chrysalis and eclosed. This was by her bedside as she passed.
I released it 2 days later.
-I purchased a butterfly calendar to keep track of Jody’s pill dosages along with other things. Each month had a different type butterfly. The month she passed September, the Monarch Butterfly was the one shown.
-The day after the Celebration of Life (9/17), I opened my phone to go through the images, there was a beautiful picture of Jody between the Celebration of Life pictures and some pics I took at work earlier that week. Come to find out, that picture was taken exactly 3 months to the day earlier (June 16) of the Celebration of Life
-9/23. I opened my phone to text my mother and there was some pictures of me and Jody at a Rays game. Somehow, it had scrolled way back to sometime last year.
-9/25 – The 4 caterpillars that Debbie Cloud gave us the day of the Celebration of Life, turned into chrysalis.
One of them eclosed (hatched) into a beautiful butterfly exactly 3 weeks after she passed (Labor Day 9/4) on 9/25. Jody’s sister Kelli and I released it last evening. The others will eclose this week.
-10/13/23 – Sad Day, I removed my wedding ring. Man that was hard to do!! I also remove the #jodyFstrong band that I’ve been wearing since the fundraiser 3/16/23 🙁
– October 5th would have been our 38th anniversary.
Ironic that our past 2 anniversaries we went to Archibald’s on Madeira Beach.
Where we met. Also, I took pictures with a palm tree in the background where we met 39 years ago.
There was no deck, or dunes back then.
-Our favorite time of year together – Fall
-Jody’s friends (Ruth and Rick) franchised the Citgo directly next store where I am currently working Bert’s Harley-Davidson. She passed away approx 2017. She was in her mid 50’s
—————————————-
12-6-23 I put a little memorial on Madeira Beach October 5th 2023, which would have been our 38th anniversary 🙁 very close to where we met back in 1984. So when you are crossing the little bridge/walkway that takes you over the dunes, sea oats, look over and you’ll see it about 15′ off the walkway.
There is also one there for Howard. He use to do all the chair/umbrella rentals back in the day. We knew him. Jody’s is between his which is a ‘rock’ type memorial and the walkway.
October 5th, 2023
This will be a tough day to get through as today would have been our 38th anniversary.
After being together 39 years, we’ve had so many wonderful memories. … So many HUGE family and friend get togethers at our home, all the beach time, 3 big vacations, camping trips, boating, 300+ Rays games, owning and growing our own business for 21 years. To see Jody coming into work every day all those years, and seeing her, basically 24/7, was something special to me that most couples will never get the chance to do. We were such a great ‘team’.
About Scott and Jody Farrell…
I was born in Beech Grove, IN and moved down in ‘79
Jody was born in Sarasota, FL
We met at Archibald’s at Madeira Beach in ‘84
Married 10-5-85 Church by the Sea (Madeira Beach)
Honeymoon and 1st Anniversary at Daytona (Beachcomber Inn)
One child-our beautiful and wonderful daughter Ashlee Smith.
Her husband Nate and twin granddaughters Sabrina and Vanessa
Pictures from our wedding and previous anniversaries
Our wedding song by Kenny Loggins – Forever
My tribute video that I did for Jody’s Celebration of Life (1000+ pictures)
Jody growing pictures up along with when I entered her life in 1984
Pictures taken from some of our anniversaries.
Beautiful memories and our future ahead of us all cut off all too soon.
RIP Sweetie – Jody Thrumston Farrell (2-10-66, 57 years old)
October 5th, 2022
September 18th
Thank you to family, friends, neighbors and Jody’s fellow classmates, who came to Jody’s Celebration of Life.
It was overwhelming to see all the support and love in our home.
We’ve had so many wonderful get-togethers at out home for the past 20 years, we thought it was fitting to have one more in honor of Jody.
I know Jody was looking down yesterday, and really enjoying the love and support she saw.
Jody as you saw was well loved by everyone. She was such a beautiful person inside and out.
I want to also say thank you to everyone that has helped me get to where I am now. The past 12 months hardest months of my life and few of you saw that first hand.
I know I have still have some very tough roads ahead and have my daily ‘moments’, I just have to stay strong and be positive as possible.
Thank you for the support, donations, flowers, cards, gifts, meals, help and love through this time.
I know I couldn’t have done it without you all.
And to ‘our’ daughter Ashlee, without you, as I know I wouldn’t have made with through without you and the help of your family.
You are really a Godsend.
I know Jody would want me to get back on track as she always encouraged me to be the best I could possibly be with the “you can do it” attitude.
Again, THANK YOU everyone!
Also, for those that didn’t see the slideshow I created, I uploaded it on my personal Youtube Channel
For those that watched the slideshow (I hope you enjoyed it), you saw that our wedding song on October 5th, 2023 was Kenny’ Loggin’s
“Forever”. I had the lyrics on the slideshow.
My other Youtube Channel.
I was making headway when all this started…I lost all momentum and enthusiasm. Jody took most of the videos and I edited them and did the thumbnails.
https://www.youtube.com/@TAZattitude/videos
Bert’s is encouraging me to get back into this once we get things going 
September 17, 2023
Jody made her first after-life presence to me this morning. 
I was going through the pictures I took yesterday at the Celebration of Life, along with earlier in the week, and somehow, this one ended up in the middle of 20 images or so.
I did not download, or change the name of the file, or the date.
I had to do a double-take when I saw it.
Added 9/18.
I just looked up when that picture was taken. June 16th. Exactly 3 months before the Celebration of Life.
I like how that butterfly stands out on the blanket!
September 11th, 2023
I wake up and look in the room where she stayed for the past 8 months. It’s still hard to fathom the idea that she’s no longer here.
No more ‘routines’, exercises, trips, canal walks, appointments to go to…the pain is now over for Jody.
Today marks a week since she she has left us.
Everyone is gone now. Family is back to work. The house is quiet. Too quiet.
It’s definitely harder than I thought it would be without her.
There is a huge hole in my life that I can’t see ever being filled again.
Even though I knew this day would come, it came faster than I thought.
She always had my back. She encouraged me, loved me, helped me become the man who I am today.
I know Jody is looking down upon me, Ashlee and family…and knowing that will help me continue my own journey.
There are things that I wanted to accomplish before she passed like seeing the opening of the new shop, going camping 1 more time, going to the beach. Even if we could do just one more walk to the canal.
We were an awesome ‘team’ ! Jody made me feel I/we could accomplish anything.
She was my rock and the love of my life for 38 years.
Too fast and too young
This weekend, friends and family will celebrate Jody’s life and I will continue to celebrate all our great memories and times we had together.
September 8th, 2023
Jody Denise Farrell born February 10 (Ironically we had the same birthday), 1966 in Sarasota, Florida. Daughter of Betty and Dave Thrumston of Pinellas Park. She was one of 3 daughters (Kelli and Kim), and had a brother (John married to Susan).
Dave sadly passed away in 2005 with the same awful cancer that Jody had. Betty still lives in Pinellas Park with her husband Jimmie. Her sisters live in Pinellas, and her brother, wife, and family live in New Hampshire.
Jody went to Pinellas Park High and graduated 1984. She remained through the years in contact with some of her high school friends (Rebecca, Diana, Elaine and others).
Her first job was at the Wagonwheel Flea Market in Pinellas Park.
Soon after getting out of high school, she came up to me at Madera Beach very near “Archibald’s” (which changed it’s name to the Snack Shack), we talked for awhile, and kept meeting at Archibald’s… then the rest is history.
The best 38 years a man could possibly ask for.
We dated for a year before getting married on October 5th, 1985. We married at Church by the Sea on Madeira Beach.
We had our only child, a beautiful daughter named Ashlee Lynn Farrell born July of 1987. Married on September 8, 2007 to Nate Smith. They have 2 beautiful daughters names Sabrina and Vanessa. Jody was SO proud of them and watching them grow up into the fine young girls they are today. They put a smile on “Mammi’s” face anytime she talked about them, showed anyone pictures of them, or just seeing them in person.
Our first place was an apartment at SunTree Apartments at 142nd and 66th. Then we moved to Park Village Apartments on Bryan Dairy and 66th. Her parents moved to NC. So we bought their house off 66th and 100th Ave in 1989. We lived there for about 13 years until 2004. We found our current home which is off Starkey and 102nd in “The Woods” subdivision. We purchased it August of 2004. So this year marks being here 20 years.
During those years, Jody had a couple of other jobs working as a secretary/bookkeeper.
We started our business (Attitude Custom Painting) in 2002. Jody came on board 2003. Jody handled all the books, phones and helped out tremendously through the years in the shop itself.
She greeted the customers. Everyone loved Jody. She always went above and beyond the normal. I always liked listening to her interact with the customers. For 20 years, we spent more time and interacted with each other at work than at home. We were basically together 24/7, yet our love for each other never changed, We’d often pass each other on the way home and wave and smile and if she got home early, I was still anxious to see her and she was anxious to see me. She’d meet me at the garage door, when I pulled my car into the garage, and I did the same. When she was pulling in she had this smile, that only those really close to her know the smile I’m talking about. I often let Lucy out at the same time. Jody really loved our “Lucy Loo)
We’d often have our “Mike A Clock” time where we would chill on our patio and have a Mikes Hard Lemonade together and watch “Jodys Monarchs” flutter around her milkweed garden…and watch Lucy chase off the squirrels.
She loved me, encouraged me, and always had my back. She encouraged me and put up with me all those years building and enjoying my cars. She was a wonderful person, wife and mother. She was my best friend and and awesome team mate. She loved her family and friends and enjoyed going out being with them.
She will be deeply missed. It’s will leave a hole in my life that I don’t know can ever be filled again.
Here’s to you Sweetie! Thanks for the best 38 years of my life a man could ask for.
—— you’re free sweetie, fly high
September 6th, 2023
Jody’s last Monarch butterfly just eclosed.#658. I’ll release this late today
“Live life as a butterfly, cause you too can spread your wings and become something of yourself, and fly away from all pain and suffering”.
September 4th, 2023
Jody Thrumston Farrell, my wife of 38 years. Mother of Ashlee Smith has passed away.
Comments