Our family lost another dear, dear friend this week. This friend, however, was more like family to us. When my parents moved to their current town, they moved into a rental house next door to Dena and Gary while their current house was being built. Dena and Gary immediately welcomed my family by inviting them over for hamburgers (I wasn't quite born yet, so I missed out on the party), a tradition that continued for many, many years. Once I was born, Dena and Gary often babysat me while my parents worked on the house or while my mom ran errands or attended my sister and brother's activities. Gary would come help my dad do projects around the house or help my mom out when my dad would be a National Guard camp in the summers. We used to spend Christmas Eve, our birthdays or any special occassion with them. As the years went on though, our roles kind of reversed as we began to look after Dena once Gary passed away. My parents were the ones to invite Dena over for Sunday dinners or to help her around her her house or to celebrate holidays. Like I said, they were like family to us; like grandparents. You can read all about Dena here, but I wanted to list a few memories of Dena:
- I think I learned my love of sweets from Dena and Gary. When I would go over to their house, they had a "Fairy Drawer" that always had a variety of sweets in it, but I could only open the drawer once the fairy came to visit. I think that was really just their way of keeping my sugar intake in check ;) They also always had cold cans of Pepsi or 7-Up in their refrigerator, but again, I could only have one per visit.
- Dena was a great cook and I can attribute some of my love of cooking to her. I remember sitting on her countertop, in the corner by the appliance garage, watching her cook. She made so many yummy meals that I couldn't begin to list them out, but the ones I remember distinctly are her hamburgers, goulash, sloppy joes, homemade chicken and noodles with "riced" mashed potatoes and green beans, her jello salads and homemade ice cream. Dena was also famous for her cakes. As she started to go downhill, before moving to Dallas, one thing we knew she would eat without a doubt was cake with ice cream.
- Dena was a perfectionist. If you ever walked into her home, you would have noticed that everything and I mean everything had it's place. Her cabinets were perfectly organized, the pillows on her couch were always straight, her floors were always vaccuumed and her bed was ALWAYS made just perfectly. Friends, she even ironed her bed sheets!! She and Gary also had the cleanest garage I've ever seen.
- I remember I was never allowed to go into her formal living room unless I was invited. This was the room where all of her valuables were displayed and it was very rare that I was in that room.
- Dena taught me how to play solitaire, which was a daily afternoon activity for her. Even when she was in her late 80's she would just plop down on the floor and play.
- When Dena would babysit me when I was really young, I would always have to take a nap at 1:00 pm so she could watch her soap opera.
- Occaisionaly Dena would have to punish me and when that happened I would have to go to the laundry room bathroom until I quit crying. Once I quit crying, I was able to come out. It was torture when I would get punished at their house.
- Dena always had the prettiest red geraniums in the summers. And, when Gary was alive, they also had a HUGE garden. One of my favorite things to do with them was to snap the ends off of the fresh green beans.
- Dena was always well put together. She always had the perfect outfit with the perfect shoes and jewelry. And her jewelry, wow, she had a lot of jewelry!
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