Delaney Bush

Delaney Marie Bush died unexpectedly in her sleep early morning Wednesday, July 19, 2017. Delaney was a beautiful soul who was an outstanding student and wonderful friend to many. She graduated as a top student in her class at Otsego High School in 2016 and was awarded a Centralis Honors Program Scholarship at Central Michigan University, where she was studying biology.

She danced at Patti Herm School of Dance for nearly her entire life. She loved all dance forms, but was especially enamored with and talented in tap. She was the lead in the Otsego High School production of Peter Pan in 2016 and delighted crowds as she soared, danced, and sang on stage.

Delaney was the co-captain of the Otsego High School state championship cross-country team. Her spirit and love brought the team together. She was a dedicated runner, with an over three year ‘consecutive day’ running streak when she passed. She began her first day at CMU by running the North Country Trail Run Half-Marathon.

Adventurous, but not reckless, Delaney impressed her hiking classmates by stepping close to cliffs on the Appalachian Trail. She wasn’t scared to hold a snake, was an expert skier, and she could always laugh at herself after a mishap. She didn’t hesitate to go for a trail run in a new park, or go up the mast on the boat to fix a halyard. She was enthusiastic about her watch-tan, Bill Nye, and anything to do with science.

Delaney had a deep faith in God and a love for the Catholic Church. Her faith was filled with a commitment to service to others and a deep sense of the environment as being God's creation. She was an active member of St. Margaret's youth and teen groups, a participant on many mission trips, and an attendee at national Catholic youth and young adult events. She actively argued for inclusion and love as a core value of all religions. This past year, as a challenge to explore her faith further, she made a commitment to visit as many faith communities as she could. She visited and met people of all faiths and perspectives on God. She came away stronger in her own faith and more committed to God than ever.

She loved her siblings, and was a wonderful role model and best friend to them and her family. She recently asked if her youngest sister could get a phone, for the sole reason that Delaney wanted to be able to text her better. Her brothers looked up to her and loved her, and not just because she would often take them out for ice cream. Delaney loved to have impromptu dance parties in the kitchen and she would get each of her siblings to dance with her.

She loved research and had just returned from a three-week biological sciences course on Beaver Island, MI. She was working as a researcher in Dr. Mallory Wacker’s CMU lab and was preparing for a career that included graduate school with an eye on being a professor. She loved working with students and had been hired as a supplemental instructor for the CMU Biology department.

When her parents picked her up from Beaver Island, she engaged them and her friend Jacob in a wide-ranging and vivacious conversation over lunch. At one point, the conversation turned to the topic of death, and Delaney stated confidently, “I’m OK if I die now. I’ve had an amazing life.” Delaney was funny, kind, loving, and vibrant; she touched the lives of all who knew her. She loved her family, and she loved being at CMU. She made friends quickly and kept them forever. She will be missed for what she was and what she was on her way to becoming.

She is survived by her mother and father, Erin and Jonathan, and her three siblings, Avery, Owen, and Eleanor, along with her grandfather, Warren. She is preceded in death by her maternal grandparents, Jerilyn and Dennis Clancy and her paternal grandmother Joan Hall Bush.

Visit with her family and friends and view her life story film on Sunday, July 23 from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Life Story Funeral Home, Plainwell; 120 Woodhams St. (685-5881). A Rosary and time of sharing memories will begin at 7:00 p.m. A funeral mass will be held on Monday, July 24 at 11:00 a.m. at the Otsego High School Performing Arts Center. Please visit Delaney’s memory page at www.lifestorynet.com where you can read her life story, archive a memory or photo and sign her memory book online. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy.