Angel Pennies

I have had several people ask me about why I LOVE pennies so much and what exactly "Kailee Pennies" are. A few years ago a friend who has also lost a child gave me a jar with this poem below attached to it and told me how much it had helped her and her family deal with the loss of her son.

"This jar holds many pennies sent from up above. Each one sent is telling you how much you’re truly loved.

They’re your angels way of telling you they think of you each day, they are paying you attention, they are saying, “come what may, we are always still together, whether at home or work or play”

Silly places you’ll find these pennies, not just always on the ground. There’s no telling where they’ll put them, there’s no saying where they’ll be found. They may put them on a side walk, by your bed or by your car. Sometimes you’ll find them somewhere near other times they may be far. You may be on vacation just trying to unwind and a shiny copper angel penny you may just happen to find.

It makes no matter where you find them, just remember always this: These pennies sent from heaven are sent with love and sealed with a kiss.

Love your angel"

I know it seems simple but I am honestly amazed at the places I have found them and how much it brightens my day and means to me. I find them on days when I am really struggling with not having Kailee here. I find them on days I am struggling with other things. My kids have found them on the first day of school or right before a big performance.

I love to find them when I am running (as my running partners can attest) especially on significant dates, it always seems like Kailee is mindful of me.

This last 2 weeks I have had 3 of the most amazing penny finds ever since I started finding Kailee Pennies.

The first one was...Lori Lee an agent that works at Prudential also writes guide books for hiking and she put together a company hike somewhere up by Big Cottonwood Canyon. There was about 20 of us and I took off in the lead. About halfway up the canyon sitting there on a stump was a bright shiny penny!! I couldn't believe it was there....a penny not a quarter or dime or nickel....

Then a week later on July 25th I took Joey and the kids on a hike to White Pine Lake. This is one of my favorite hikes I have ever been on. BUT it is far away and very remote back country, in fact everyone thought I had no idea really where I was going as we were driving there because it was so far back in.

The hike was wonderful, wildflowers everywhere. It is about an 8 mile hike round trip. We hiked into the lake and then on the way back out Joey said to the kids. I will give you $5 if you find a penny...Mostly joking. He ran most of the way back down and I took my time with the kids, taking pictures and talking. I stopped to take a picture of a bluebell Flower because I just love them and there in the dirt was a very dirty almost unnoticeable penny! One of the hardest things about losing a child is that they are not here for all of the things you do as a family. You wonder how they would interact and who they would talk to. Would they enjoy this or that? When we found this penny, every one of my kids said YAY! Kailee is here hiking with us.

The last one was on the day that Hannah wood came home from being overseas for almost 2 years. She was one of my YW girls, a dear friend and her mom is one of the dearest friends I have ever had. When she got home we were hugging in her driveway and her brother picked up a penny underneath us and said "look Annie your daughter is looking out for Hannah" we cried and I put the penny in my pocket. Later that night I looked at the penny and realized that it was a 1999 penny which is the year of Kailee's accident. Crazy as it sounds all the times I have picked up pennies, I have never found a 1999 one. I called Teresa to tell her and she and I both cried as she said, Your daughter is looking out for my daughter.

The next day Hannah gave me a dog tag chain with a tiny "German penny" on it. She had picked up the penny as she was getting on her plane in Germany and thought I can use the good luck. As she traveled her 30 hours she forgot about the penny and changed a couple of times. Later on the night she got home she reached into her pocket and found the "German Penny" and immediately made it into a necklace for me. When she told me she talked about guardian angels that she has felt all through her service and as she has had several scary things happen to her overseas.

How amazing that she would find a penny as she was getting on the plane and then find one as soon as she got out of the car at her house. We made the penny that we found in her driveway so that she could put it on her dog tags and always have an angel watching over her.

I know it is simple and maybe even silly but what a blessing this has been to me to find this small pennies. We have found them in the most amazing places, where honestly I can't imagine how it got there. I find them so many times when I desperately need it.

I have a plate in my office that I keep all of my pennies on. I went through the pennies the other day, My favorites are the ones that are so beat up and worn out that you can't tell the age or anything else. You know it is a penny though. Kind of like Kailee was before she passed away, Just broken and had just about everything in the world wrong wtih her but you still knew she was there and an angel. In the dish the oldest penny is a 1959 one. I have 2 from 2003 which is the year she died and a 2003 dime that I kept only because it was a 2003 one.