Brenda Rains

Due to a birth complication, Brenda had the brain age of a two-year-old, though she is remembered for having the disposition of an angel. The doctors said that she wouldn't live past age twenty. She lived to be seventy-nine. Of course, these physicians couldn't have known about the loving Rains home in which Brenda lived most of her life.

Sybil and Fred Rains donated the land and helped raise the money for a special needs school for Brenda, about 500 yards from their family home in Sherwood. That school was North Hills School For Exceptional Children, now North Hills Services, Inc. Aptly named, Brenda was such a person, exceptional for her loving spirit, intuitive insights and kind heart. Brenda and so many other children thrived at this school.

Brenda lived with her parents until both of her parents passed away. After this, in 1998, Brenda lived with her brother, Jerry and his wife, Patsy. In 2011, after suffering several broken arms due to falls, she began to reside in Pleasant Valley Nursing Home, now Encore of West Little Rock, a place Brenda loved and in which she was cared for with love and kind attention.

Forever a child, Brenda lived a carefree and trusting life, one completely absent of guile. How fitting that she would arrive in heaven on the day of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. This was the way her family, and, in particular, her Mother, Sybil Rains, set forth for her and Brenda walked in it so sweetly.

After seventy-nine years as an already engaging little girl, a healthy Brenda has now come into her own, as a Heavenly angel, but one with the wings of freedom to fly.

Brenda is survived by her sister, Trisha Goodson, her older brother, John Rains and wife, Margie, and her younger brother, Jerry Rains and wife, Patsy, along with many cousins, nieces and nephews.

A graveside service will take place at Griffin Leggett Rest Hills cemetery, 7724 Landers Rd, North Little Rock, AR 72117 on April 16, 2023 at 2:00 PM. Memorial donations can be made to North Hills Services, Inc., 6900 North Hills Blvd, Sherwood, AR 72120.