Jennifer Stiefel

Jennifer always marched to the beat of her own drummer. She came into the world 15 weeks prematurely at Magee Women’s Hospital. Beating the odds, after 101 days she came home to her parents and older sister with no health problems. She was comfortable in her own skin, regardless of what others thought. She dressed in what she was comfortable in, and she stood firm on her beliefs.

Not all who wander are lost.

Jennifer thrived as she grew into a beautiful young woman. In high school she ran cross country and distance events in track. She always did well enough to help her team, but didn’t want to outshine the “expected” leader on the team. Jennifer was active in AWANA clubs, earning the honor to attend scholarship camp, and earned the meritorious award. Jennifer went on mission trips to Brasil and Mexico while in high school. She also participated in the early childhood program and became a preschool “teacher” in the student run program for area children.

Because of her love for children, Jen attended CCBC, earning her associates degree in Early Childhood Education. She then spent a year at Slippery Rock University before finally settling in at Clarion University, completing her Bachelors Degree. Somehow, while attending school and soon after, she managed to work 2 fulltime jobs to pay off student loans. She taught countless youngsters in various pre-schools, early learning centers and childcare centers including the Goddard School, Kindercare, YMCA programs and Head Start. Jennifer treated each child as if it were her own and saved many memories of her time working with children. After the pandemic in 2020, she decided to take a new path and work in other industries, planning for her future and working to make a better life for herself.

In her adult life, Jennifer lived a modest, simple life, choosing to appreciate nature and all of God’s creation. She would map out elaborate trips to state and national parks in the tri-state area to explore as many waterfalls as she could in the time she had available, always with her rescue pup Bindie by her side. Mind you, many times she camped in a tent if she was staying longer than the day. She also enjoyed attending Christian music concerts and took in as many as her work schedule allowed each year. Notably, she also once raised a steer from a small bottle fed calf to an adult – which she kept in the backyard!

Jennifer wore a smile on her face despite any struggle she may have been going through. Anyone familiar with childcare workers knows that the pay sucks. These folks truly do it for the love of children. Yet she would buy small gifts for her students. She worked to make her classroom an inviting place to learn. She had crates of books to read to them, and would teach them to sign before they could talk.

She carried that smile into her other positions including working at a cheese factory, cutting lab grown diamonds, assembling surgical kits and building components for the medical industry. She gave each position 100% and was a valuable team member no matter what she chose to do.

During her last adventure in search of waterfalls in early March, 2025, Jennifer found herself on unfamiliar state park roads during a spring snowy/slushy day. While trying to negotiate a bend in the road, she ran off the edge and wrecked her car with her Bindie along for the ride. An injury she sustained in that accident eventually caused her to go into cardiac arrest 3 weeks later. Despite not feeling well, she didn’t miss a day of work, and continued to smile her way through it. Jennifer never woke up from cardiac arrest. After a valiant effort by the medical staff at UPMC, Jennifer passed away from the damage done. Because of the generous person Jennifer was, our family made the decision to donate her organs through CORE. At only 39 years of age, she was able to donate her kidneys to 2 recipients, multiple organs to research and tissue that will be used in the future.

Jennifer loved fiercely. She never found her perfect match, but not for the lack of love to give. Our family is forever changed by her loss. She had an older sister and younger brother, four nieces and one new nephew at the time of her death. The girls have wonderful memories to keep, but her nephew was only 6 1/2 months old at the time. We strive to live more like Jennifer as we negotiate life without her. Loving “louder”. Never taking our time together for granted. We will continue to speak her name and keep her memory alive. And she will live on through those she was able to help in death.