Today, we celebrate the life of a living miracle, who filled so many hearts with light, love and joy. Esther Renell Fenison was our little miracle having withstood trial-after-trial with a smile. We will always remember Renell as the ball of sunshine that Lord allowed to beam over us all.
Renell was born in Los Angeles, CA on December 14, 1968 to her parents Charles Fenison and Hazel Nell Fenison.
Her education would start at L.A. Adventist Academy formerly known as L.A. Union, next Lynwood Elementary, then Lynwood Adventist Academy, where she would later graduate. She also attended Santa Monica College and West L.A. College taking various courses. She would later attend Career Colleges of America, where she completed her degree as a pharmacy technician.
In the early 90s, Renell learned she was going into renal failure and had early diabetic retinopathy, which could lead to complete blindness. She had to undergo dialysis treatment until she could receive a kidney transplant. In 1995, God would not only grant her a new kidney but a pancreas as well making her free of diabetes. Renell became one of the first recipients of a successful duel transplant. The Lord would also lead her to brothers, Dr. Alfred M. Solish and Dr. Samuel P. Solish, both of whom saved her eyesight in the right eye.
Renell picked herself up and enrolled at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles, where she learned to accept life as a partially sighted person. She culminated her time there with grace and poise and made being partially sighted a way of life.
She would eventually land a job as a switchboard operator at the VA Long Beach Healthcare System. She took pride in her job and was one of the best switchboard operators they had at the time. There, she made a lifetime of friends and acquaintances.
Renell’s health experienced ups and downs due to being a diabetic for most of her life. She would be in and out of the hospital for multiple reasons, for various spans of time but it never defeated her spirit. Renell always had an optimistic outlook no matter how much pain, agony or discomfort. She kept her smile.
After 15 years of successfully taking care of her health, never missing appointments and watching her health, life would change once again. Renell learned that she was going into chronic rejection of her transplanted kidney. She would have to go on dialysis for the second time in her life yet she kept her smile.
In 2008, Renell returned to the same dialysis clinic with grace and beauty—accepting the path God had put before her. She made it her mission to encourage other dialysis patients that there was life despite their prognosis and that God was able to see them through their situation. Along with her mother, and brother on the holidays, Renell took her smile to dialysis three times a week.
In November 2015, Renell has a lumpectomy which revealed she had breast cancer. What could be considered devastating to most, she accepted with the mercy and the grace of God. “Live or die, I’m with God” she proclaimed to her family and once again, she accepted the path that had been laid before her. She kept her smile.
Time flew through radiation treatments which was all that was required due to the diagnosis of a non-aggressive, stage 2 cancer. Renell received a good prognosis but some lab results left question marks. Those questions would later be answered in late 2016 as the cancer had returned as two different kinds of cancer. She endured a left breast mastectomy during the Thanksgiving holiday with a smile on her face stating God’s will had been done.
She was able to enjoy her favorite holiday, Christmas, opening gifts with family and celebrated the new year holding hope in her hand. Even though chemotherapy and more radiation treatments waited for her, Renell kept her smile. God is merciful and in his infinite wisdom, He didn’t allow her to endure the strenuous and uncertain road of chemotherapy.
Renell’s body succumbed to the complications of cancer but her spirit remained above it all. She believed that the Lord was in control despite the situation. She fought for as long as God allowed life to remain in her body—and then He called her home.
She went to sleep in Christ which means that all of who believe and have accepted Christ shall see her again. She wouldn’t want weeping and mourning but for all to remember she is with God. She is with the one who fashioned and created her—she is near her heavenly Father.
Renell never complained about her health issues instead—she owned them. She took responsibility for her health issues and never pointed the finger at anyone. Instead, she reached out to those she saw repeating her mistakes and tried to point them towards a different course.
Renell is survived by her father, Charles Fenison, mother, Hazel Nell Carter, her sisters, Pandora McDaniel, Vida Vickers and Wanda Brodsky, her brothers, Brian W. Carter and Sean Fenison, her brother-in-law, Solomon Brodsky, her nephews, Damon Armstrong and Michael McDaniel and her niece, Danelle Armstrong. She is also survived by a host of cousins and family: the Berrys, the Fenisons, the Carters, and the Palms. Renell would want all of her friends to know that she loved them and hopes that there would be no hard feelings that she chose to keep her health issues within her immediate family.
A homegoing celebration was held for Renell at her final resting place at Forest Lawn in Hollywood Hills.
RIP Little Mama
