Anna Elizabeth Fish walked bravely and boldly into the house of the Lord on Saturday October 1, 2022 after an incredibly courageous lifetime battle with muscular dystrophy at the tender age of 17.
Anna was born in Minden on December 26, 2004 to John Michael and Laurie Marie Jones Fish. She attended Minden schools from grades K-12, and was set to graduate Minden High School in the spring of next year as an honors and dual enrollment student. Her teachers and fellow students will all remember her for her sweetness, her perseverance, and her ever present smile. She was a luminous young lady who endured much in her short lifetime but never sought sympathy or uttered even a mumbling word of complaint.
Anna always looked for joy and happiness, and she loved spending time with family and friends. Anyone who shared her company will remember her infectious laugh and terrific sense of humor. She was exceptionally creative, leaving a voluminous collection of short stories and drawings behind for us to remember her and celebrate her life. She loved animated programming, and she would often create beautiful drawings of characters from the shows she loved. Her physical disability was such that the painstaking detail she put into these creations was simply awe inspiring. Her limitless imagination and brilliant creative expression showed the rest of us that a physical disability does not take away the extraordinary power of our hearts and minds.
Although everyone who knew Anna loved her and cherished her, the person who knew her best and shared the closest bond is her sister Madelyn Grace. Anna and Maddy were inseparable sisters, friends, and co-conspirators who could turn any situation into something fun and enjoyable. From secret codes to karaoke to private moments only the two of them will understand, they were a glorious pair to behold, laughing, crying, and even occasionally arguing as only two people with that kind of bond can.
Anna was preceded in death by her great grandfather, John Willie Smithey and her great grandmother Mary Waldron Smithey Ruffin, her special papaw William Clifford Ruffin, her beloved grandmother Marilyn Smithey Lee, her grandfather William G. Jones, Jr. and her uncles Allan and Andrew Jones of Anchorage, Alaska and her loving aunt Annette Smithey Cole. Left to cherish the memories of her wonderful life are her mother Laurie Marie Jones Fish and her sister Madelyn Grace Fish of Minden, her father John Michael and wife Lauren Fish and stepsisters Braleigh and Kynlee Dale of Minden, her grandfather William Calvin Fish, her grandmother Alice Jones of Selawik, Alaska, and her pappy Bruce Lee of Dubberly.
She will be dearly missed as well by her uncle Billy Fish and wife Becky and cousins Sidney Anna and Mary Alexis Fish of Dubberly, her aunt Angie and husband Todd Ferris and cousins Lily and Logan Ferris of Wasila, Alaska, her uncle Martin Cole of Minden and her Aunt Jamie Jones of Wasila.
Honorary Pallbearers include Anna’s cherished group of friends, including Maddison Conly, Qwalysia Eason, Aaron Edwards, Lane Engles, Taryn Joyce, Gracelyn Pepper, Leilah Wallace, Connor Woods and so many more.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests making donations to the Cure for Congenital Muscular Dystrophy research site: www.curecmd.org.
Celebration of Life will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022 at Living Word Worship Center, Minden, La.
