2008 Woodie Awards
Memorial service for Ganguzza preserves her spirit
Andrea Canterbury
Issue date: 7/3/08 Section: News
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Ganguzza, a UCF graduate student, was found dead June 11, about two miles from Blanchard Park. Investigators continue to work to find leads in her case.
As loud thunder rolled across the darkening sky and raindrops began to fall, Ganguzza's husband, Brendan, struggled to speak to the crowd, fighting back tears.
"Sometimes you go through life, things you know you get bogged down with, things never that clear, and you forget about sometimes what really matters," said Brendan Ganguzza. "And life happens and in the worst of times, you get to see how many beautiful people there are. I don't know what I would have done, what Eileen would have done, the rest of my family, if it wasn't for the support."
The Blanchard Park YMCA worked together with the Central Florida YMCA and Ganguzza's family to arrange the community memorial service for her. The service aimed to help the community heal through prayer and reflection. Local pastors focused on four themes: from grief to healing, from anger to forgiveness, from fear and anxiety to peace, and from isolation to a community of caring.
The memorial included a tree dedication and blessing by Father Terry Niziolek of Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Orlando. Friends say Ganguzza recently converted to Catholicism and was excited about her baptism. The crape myrtle tree will be planted on the grounds of Jay Blanchard Park in remembrance of Ganguzza and in celebration of her life.
"I've never met anybody like my wife," Brendan Ganguzza said. "She's so special - anything she wanted to do, she could do. She really cared about people."
Spokeswoman Maryalicia Johnson of the Central Florida YMCA said the organization was honored to host the event.
Finding resolution and acceptance was an important goal of the evening's reflections. Pastor Coleman Pratt of First Baptist Church in Union Park spoke about his personal grief from losing his 24-year-old daughter after a double-lung transplant. He said the way to attain healing is not by moving from grief, but rather through it.
"Things are not as they were," said Pratt as he looked toward Ganguzza's family members. "Things are not as they should be, things are not as they could be and things are not as they will be. They are what they are."