Memories

I was laying in bed this morning thinking of all I could have said when the minister asked if anyone would like to say a few words (like I could have talked through the tears).
Here's a few of the thoughts:
I'm probably the oldest/first person who remembers Dee.
She was first my sister.
Remembering her starts when she was headed for high school.
Even then, she was always put together, neat, organized and very particular about her things.
There was the right way, a wrong way, and Dee's way (which was also the right way).
She loved going places with her friend Bonnie, then later her cousins Janice and Janet, always ready to have fun.
When she married Jack (the first time), I remember her being so happy and in love.  (swoon)
But, happiness doesn't always last and there was the terrible time of the divorce.

Dee met and married Wayne and then Steve came along.
Life wasn't always the way Dee would have planned it but she definitely had a way of making it the best she could.
When Steve married and his first 3 kids came along, she and Wayne moved into the "GrandParent" years.  Don't think for a minute that she wasn't the same Dee that raised her son...the grandkids soon learned that Gramma had a way of doing things and they would get with her program.
She disciplined with love and a firm hand.  It is safe to say that all her grandchildren loved her.

She worked many years as an optician at Chittick Optical and I think she really liked that she took great care in seeing that the glasses she adjusted were as comfortable as she could make them.  I can say from my own viewpoint that I have never had a pair of glasses that fit as well as the ones Dee adjusted.

Dee sometimes came across as a little aloof, maybe because of the way she carried herself.  I can tell you that when it came to family she had a very soft center.  More than once in my own life, she has come to my rescue (of course right along side of her was Cindy!).  

She was a person you could tell something and know that if you didn't want anyone else to know...they didn't.
Never, and I mean never, did she ever ask for much help for herself.  Everything was always kept close to the vest.  If she was ill we never found out about it til she was ready for us to know....even to the end.

She and her family went through the horrible ordeal of having to watch Wayne die of cancer.  It took a very big toll on Dee.  More, I think, than I realized at the time.  It was several years before she recovered from that time.
After Wayne was gone, Dee spent time with her youngest 3 grandsons as Steve had moved closer to home.

Then Jack came back into her life.
It must have been the right time because I hadn't see Dee as happy and carefree as she was then for such a long time.  Oh how she enjoyed their trips, the dancing, going out to eat, just having fun.  I was so happy when they got married.

Only Mom knew that something was not right with Dee.  She kept telling us...but you know Cindy and me...
Wish we had listened...not that we could have changed much.

Dee crammed a lot into the past few years of her life.  Lots of time spent with the grand/great grand kids, Steve, Jack, the trips and getting her house spiffied up.  In typical Dee fashion, she had financial things in order and her will made.

These past few months are not ones I want to keep in my memory bank but I suppose that we cannot choose our memories.  My memories are of the real Dee, as she was, with both her faults and her strengths.  She was my sister, and I loved her.