Dina Lynn Petrillo

Pray! Good Morning! This morning we have gathered together to celebrate the life of Dina Lynn Petrillo. Her husband Dave, along with her mother Carol with her husband Max, her father Ken, and her two sisters Ann with her husband Jeff, and Sandy with me, want to thank you for coming here today be with them in celebrating and remembering their wife, daughter, and sister. Dina is also survived by her nephews Christopher Heuschkel, Jason Payne, his wife Amy, their daughter Ryleigh, her niece Jennifer Noel, her husband Matt, their children Caleb, Colton, and Chloe. Dina was born on July 6, 1960 at Mercy Hospital in Denver, Colorado. The family lived in the Denver area all of her childhood and she was the youngest sister of 3, 3 girls, I can only imagine, what it was like, 3 sisters, although I get my perspective from my wife, and she says Dina and Ann always picked on her, and that she was always the good sister and they were the evil ones. But then I was talking to Ann and she said that she was the good one and Dina and Sandy would pick on her. I can only imagine…I'm sure that in the Hall household was, well, I can only imagine… I do know this, that Dina looked up to her big sisters, they may have fought, banned together, ganged up on each other, and played together, but make no mistake Dina thought her sisters were the best. I remember when I first met Dina, Sandy and I had just met and I came over to pick her up, there was Dina. She would want to know who I was, and what were we going to do, and if she could come with us? I thought she was a annoying little sister, but you could tell that she looked up to Sandy and wanted to be a serious part of her life. She wanted to be involved, and wasn't shy about wanting to be a part of the action. Soon though Ann and Sandy, the two big sisters got married and moved out on their own with their husbands, leaving Dina behind, and I think she really missed her two big sisters, and I think she also wanted to have a little bit of what they had found in their husbands. But Dina was still pretty young at 15, and her knight in shinning armor would not come around for a while. As Dina grew up and started searching for her lot in life she decided to take a different path than her sisters took, so it took a while longer for her to find her soul mate, the companion that she had sought for a long time. But she did find him. She was working at Lowery Air Force Base when she met a guy that was different, a guy that she could depend on, a guy that would love her and help take care of her until her last day. That guy was Dave Nogalski, Dina and Dave hit it off right away, going out and getting coffee and just talking, and learning about each other, and finally coming together in a bond of love. They had fun together, Dave is a practical joker, and he made Dina laugh, he is an outdoorsy kind of guy and he taught Dina how to have fun camping and being outdoors. Dina loved animals and being outdoors camping she was able to be around animals and the wildlife she had only seen in pictures or on TV. Dave I believe was the relationship that Dina yearned for. She also loved her nephews and niece, were ever she was wanted to know about Christopher, Jenn, Jenny as she would call her, and Jason. And when they started having children boy was she excited, she always wanted to know about what the kids were doing and when was she going to get some pictures. I want to tell a little known fact about Dina, or maybe every does know this fact, but she was an expert at getting stuffed animals out of those vending machines, you know the ones, they put them at the entrances to the stores and folks like me walk in with their grandchildren and they say Grandpa, Grandpa. Can you get me one of those? So I put my quarters in the slot and try to maneuver the hooks just right and then capture the little stuffed animal, ya right. Well Dina mastered those machines, Dave told me that every time they saw one of those machines Dina would put her quarters in and maneuver the hooks just right and voila she would snag one of the prizes, and I know she was an expert because Jenn and Jason's kids have scores of those little and big stuffed animals that auntie Dina always was able to get. Every time Sandy and I go into a store and see those stuffed animal machines we think of Dina. We come together this morning, to celebrate Dina's life. Dina had a life of contrasts, she experienced pain and sorrow, but also pleasure and joy. She had defeats and she had triumphs. There were times when Dina was very close to family, and there was also a time she was distant, times with many friends, and times with few. Now you may say well we all have those contrasts in our lives, we all experience joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure, good times and bad. And that is true. But with Dina she didn't usually have just good times and bad but she usually had a really good time, or really bad time. There were periods in Dina's life were she had experienced the very worst life had to offer, pain and suffering. But there was also times, when she was with the people she cared about that she experienced joy and laughter, and the REAL joys of life. Dina wanted to experience all the gusto that life had to offer; she strived to make the good times really good, because the bad times that she experienced tended to be really bad. The contrasts that Dina had were extreme, usually more extreme that most of us have. And because her life was extreme she usually lived live on the edge. Dina's life on the edge started out that way from the very beginning. When she was born 47 years ago, the day seemed no different than any other day. July 6th 1960 was no different except for one thing Dina Lynn Hall was born on that day. The birth seemed normal in every respect, except for one extreme aspect. The newborn baby was born with a cancerous tumor on her kidney. Her mother and father were overwhelmed; she was only 3 days old when it was discovered. She had to have surgery to remove the kidney, followed with 6 weeks of radiation treatment. Carol remembers the doctors had to put her into a body cast to keep her still during the treatment because she was so active, they needed to keep her still, because even at such an early age she was displaying a strong will and feistiness. It was that strong will and feistiness though that she would need to help her fight the many battles she would have in keeping healthy. Dina would not come home from the hospital after she was born for 3 months, and her mom and dad hoped that the worst was behind them. They brought their newborn baby home and started to have some normalcy return to their household. But at 6 months Carol noticed a lump on her back and took in to the doctor and after running tests and x-rays, it was discovered that the radiation treatments that she needed to combat the cancer inadvertently melted a disc in her back. She then endured 3 spinal fusions, to try and repair the damage; she then had to wear a back brace while she was a toddler still being active and a handful for her mother. At age 2 she was back in the hospital with pneumonia and stayed another 3 weeks. After that though she was able to recover and she tried to have a normal childhood, despite the setbacks and bad back Dina wanted to live and play and grow up just like she saw her sisters doing. She was a fighter. Then when she turned 18 she had to go back into the hospital to again repair some damage that had been done to her bowel, she was then diagnosed with diabetes. Again she would fight back and overcome the surgery and the condition she was in, and then things were going fairly well until once again, she was back in the hospital a few years later to have back surgery to help alleviate the pain and discomfort she had there for years. 3 screws were inserted, and then later removed when they didn't seem to work. Another hospital stay, another hardship to overcome, She was a fighter. As I had mentioned earlier, the contrasts in Dina's life were extreme. She certainly experienced pain and suffering in the extreme, but she also experienced joy, comfort and peace in the extreme. Certainly she was helped tremendously along the way, her family, did many things to help Dina, but was frequently overwhelmed. Her mom and dad also had to fight the fatigue of the battles Dina had, but never gave up. Mom was tireless in her support for her daughter, and Dave was her primary care giver for 20 years. But even with all of the love and support that Dina received from her husband and her parents, and her sisters, they could not give her the comfort and peace to the extreme that I think she experienced from her faith. Earlier we were listening to some songs that Dina had put together that she wanted us to play at her funeral. She wanted us to listen to these particular songs, these particular words. You can read those words in the pamphlet that you have. Why? Because I believe she wanted us to know that she did, and is now experiencing the extreme joy and peace that she always wanted. That joy and peace we all try by our own will and determination to have in our lives. Dina as we have ready noted was a fighter. She was strong willed. She was determined that her physical ailments were not going to stop her from living the life she wanted to live. But I think that somewhere along the way she realized that she, and her strong will, all the help and determination that her husband, her mother and father, sisters and extended family gave her, these would ultimately not give her extreme peace and joy. Those would have come from something outside of her. I want to focus our attention on the last song that Dina wanted us to listen to today. Amazing Grace, I know that most of us have heard this song; some even know the first stanza, ""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."" This was one of Dina's favorite songs. I think the message of the first verse in this song can give us all an understanding of where Dina discovered extreme peace, joy, and ultimately healing. ""Amazing grace how sweet the sound"", Grace, God's grace, that's what Dina was exposed to. Grace says it's not what you have done, or not done, it's not because of what you said or what you accomplished. But grace says I love you because I have chosen to do so. Grace is unmerited favor. Think of a parent who loves their children, most parents love their children right? Is the love they have for them because it they are good, and deserve to be loved? No it is because we love and find favor with our children even before they are born, before we even know if they will be good or bad. But the grace and love we give to our children is flawed compared to the grace and love given by God. That's why it so amazing. Jesus illustrated what grace is to his disciples in a parable. The parable is recorded in the Bible, Luke 15:11ff, I want read you this parable because it really demonstrates what God's grace is all about: Read: That's God's grace, finding favor where there is no merit for it, loving and forgiving even though there's no deserving of it. The younger son deserved not what he got, but what he didn't get. He didn't get what he deserved he got Grace. The next line in the song ""saved an wretch like me."" Have you ever Google the word ""wretch""? Well I'll save you the trouble, Wikipedia says, ""A wretch is one who is despicable."" That's right despicable, yet he was saved. Save from what? Saved from death. The bible says that ""the wages of sin is death"", the wages, or what we deserve because of our sin, or our wretchedness is death. The bible also says ""for by grace are you saved, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works that no man should boast."" God saves us from the death we are all destined for not because of what we have done, or that we deserve but by his Grace. The next line of the song: ""I once was lost but now am found"" Two things about this We are all lost and can't find our way, but notice he was found, he did not find his own way. God finds us we don't find God, many say they know Jesus, but does Jesus know them? The last line of the verse, says, ""Was blind but now I see"" When God saves us by his grace our blind eyes are opened for the first time and we are able to see and worship God in the way he created us to do. I believe Dina is experiencing extreme joy, peace, healing and eternal life right now. There is another verse of this song that you don't hear very often, but I think it is very appropriate to what has happened to Dina. ""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. God says He has ""given us eternal life and this life is in his son, he who has the son has life he who does not have the Son of God, does not have the life."" That's what I think Dina wanted us to hear on the day of her funeral. On the day when all of her loved ones would gather together in one place she asked that this song would be played and this is what that song means. And my hope and prayer is that every time you hear Amazing Grace you will think of Dina and remember what this song is all about.