Vanessa Marlen Gutierrez, 19, passed on September 11, 2022. She was born to Luis Gutierrez and Laura Gutierrez in French Camp, California on July 07, 2003.

Vanessa graduated from Weber Institute in 2020. A beloved daughter, sister, and a friend to many.

The death of someone we love and care about Is like the death of part of us. No one else will ever call out from within us quite the same responses, the same feelings or actions or ideas. Their death is an ending of one part of a story. Lord as we look back over Vanessa's life we ask what we have received, what we can appropriate

And continue on in our own lives and what must be laid to rest. Our love for her reminds us that our sharing In one another’s lives brings both support and pain. Our being parted from her reminds us of our own mortality and that your love is enduring.

We thank you that our love for Vanessa draws us together and gives us a new appreciation of one another And of the beauty and fragility of relationships Which mirror your grace and goodness to us.

Lord, time’s tide may wash her footprints from the shore but not our love for her nor the influence of her life upon our own nor the ways in which they will ever be a sign for us of those things which really matter-which are eternal. Hear this prayer for your love’s sake. Amen.