Olivia Lauren Ernst

Olivia Lauren Ernst was born in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, 12-days past her due date on a full moon, already having outgrown her newborn clothes. She left too soon at the age of 31 in Marquette, Michigan. Her tremendous light, intellect, beauty, creativity, humor, and care for people, animals, and nature are missed by all who knew her.

Olivia was a brilliant scholar who received her Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in English Language and Literature/Letters (Northern Michigan University), her Master's Degree, summa cum laude, in Medieval English Literature (University of Colorado-Boulder), and completed her Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) coursework on full scholarship in Early Medieval Literature (University of Wisconsin-Madison).

A scholar of Old English and Old Norse, and of premodern literature more broadly, her particular intellectual interest was poetic meter. She was the first contributing editor to the Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project (OEPF). One of her lasting contributions to the project is her edition of A Journey Charm, a medieval charm meant to help women through childbirth, which the OEPF has now dedicated to her memory.

Olivia was a published author, an esteemed and empathetic educator, and a gifted artist and musician playing the bassoon, bass guitar, piano, and flute.

Olivia's parents dreamed of her almost as soon as they met and soon after marrying began trying to conceive. Three and a half years later they learned of the pregnancy and in November of 1990 Olivia finally arrived. The most beautiful child that was ever born.

As a newborn and throughout her babydom, when tears came and cuddles, feeding, or sleep failed, she was soothed by Shakespeare's Sonnets. She would go on to teach Shakespeare at university, including The Sonnets, Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, Henry IV part I, Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, and The Tempest.

Around the age of 18 months, Olivia's passion for pronunciation, meaning, and later the magic of words presented as she insisted bananas were to be pronounced "B-Nanas," given that she called one of her grandmothers "Nana." Soon after, when shown four tulip flowers in a vase, she vehemently insisted that they were NOT tulips, but "four lips!"

Olivia happily rode an old pony named Barbie from ages one to three and, on visits to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, played-in sun or snow-in and around Lake Superior. She called it "my lake" from the moment she could string the two words together. She collected bushels of rocks, delighted in dress-up, snorkeled in the bathtub, tinkered in her own toddler comedy, devoured books, sang songs, made art, found intrigue in the mechanics of most everything, helped her grandmothers sew and knit, and enthusiastically helped in family kitchens and at the boarding stables with her grandparents' horses.

Olivia loved listening to made-up stories about the adventures of Bella the Cat, watching Reading Rainbow and Bill Nye the Science Guy, as well as foreign language and music cassette tapes and books of all kinds from her own collection and the Peter White Public Library.

At age four, Olivia announced that she planned to become an attorney for animals. At five, she discovered a life-long love of the Beatles (favoring Ringo). Around age six, Harry Potter introduced her to what would become decades of ongoing interest and comfort in fantasy and science fiction reading. She also became a master K'Nex creator and a laser-focused, high volume production Beanie Baby house designer and builder (spending one summer filling an entire attic with tiny houses made from found objects).

Olivia was fascinated with school and playing make-believe school before she was old enough to attend. She couldn't wait to begin. On the first day of kindergarten, her parents accompanied her to her classroom planning to stay and support her transition but, once in the door, she turned and confidently announced, "you can go now." Incredibly independent and focused, on the night before big tests, which she seemed to love, she advised that she needed to go to bed early and be sure to have an extra good breakfast the next morning.

She introduced her parents to the joy of parent-teacher conferences when she started school. To know that teachers, and students experienced her with the same awe and affection as her family was heartening. Her keen curiosity and sensitive spirit seemed to impact everyone she came in contact with in life.

In early elementary school, Olivia took dance, karate, and art lessons. She spent endless hours at the Ellwood A. Matson Lower Harbor Park on Lake Superior and, one summer, climbing Sugarloaf Mountain almost daily. Later, living in lower Michigan again, she played soccer, was on the cheer team, enjoyed Destination Imagination, held a seat on the student council, and volunteered in the kitten room at the Capital Area Humane Society. From ages 13-18 she spent time between East Lansing and Ann Arbor, developing lifelong friendships in each city.

On her first day of middle school, a new school, having just moved to East Lansing, Michigan, Olivia began a campaign for student council president which culminated in a well-crafted speech about creating change that wowed teachers and administrators most profoundly.

In high school Olivia swam competitively, excelled on the debate team, played the bassoon and bass guitar in band, held a bassoon chair in the area-wide Mid-Michigan Youth Symphony, enthusiastically participated in German Club (traveling to Germany) and the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), including helping to organize a GSA prom. She also co-created an online comic strip and worked at the local computer repair and LAN gaming center. She loved spending time with friends, especially engaging in role playing games.

At the end of tenth grade, after months of deep frustration, sadness, and yearning for more academic challenge, Olivia left public school. She was educated at home online through Clonlara School's off-campus program while continuing her chair in the area-wide symphony. At 17, she took the GED and the ACT and soon gained admission to her number one college pick, Northern Michigan University (at the edge of her lake), where she secured a spot in the hoped-for honors dorm.

When Olivia turned 18, after months of planning and saving, she had the tree of life tattooed across her entire torso, a deeply meaningful personal reminder of her own precious human life.

Later, as a graduate school teaching assistant, Olivia took pride in sharing parts of her own story and nontraditional academic path with students. As a self-declared "high school dropout" with a GED and a nearly off-the-charts ACT score, she achieved great academic success through sheer determination and hard work. During her Master's studies at Boulder, she was scouted and eventually flown to California by Stanford University.

Olivia had a deep visceral care and concern for our world-a fierce desire to see it grow in understanding and acceptance of all people. She adored her friends and had a lifelong love of books, cats, cooking, music, art, writing, swimming, creative projects, games, and puzzles of all kinds. Notably, shortly before her death, she befriended and discovered a kindred connection in helping care for a pup named Coney.

A visual representation of the very essence of Olivia can be seen in an award-winning, poster board sized colored pencil drawing she made in her youth: A heart with the whole world inside it.

Olivia's contemplative ways, the joy she brought to life, and her playful spirit live on in the people and animals whose lives she touched. To grieve and to celebrate and to love the life and heart of Olivia is to love the whole world.

"...here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)." -e.e. cummings

Olivia is survived by her mother, Kintla (Dr. Sam) Striker, father Scott Ernst, grandparents Carol and Dale McCarty and Elaine Ernst, Aunt R. Lucy Ernst, best friend Savanna Elkins, uncles, step siblings, cousins, step nieces and nephews, great aunts and uncles, and innumerable friends, colleagues, and former students.

Memorials for Olivia have been conducted in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Lansing, Michigan, and Madison, Wisconsin. A private family memorial will be held at her cherished Lake Superior in Marquette, Michigan.

In memory of Olivia, trees may be planted through the Sympathy Store or One Tree Planted. Donations may be made to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and/or Planned Parenthood, an organization Olivia strongly supported in her lifetime.