Goodbye Dolly...Hello Dolly

On Tuesday August 25, the world said goodbye to one of its most precious individuals while heaven above got to say  "Hello Dolly!"

 We all loved her. Who couldn't love her? That smile, that voice, the kind heart, the always accepting attitude towards all people, the incredible business acumen, the humility, the faith, the loyalty to husband Carl.

Back in the late 80's, Dave and I never missed her Sunday night TV variety show. Our favorite part was at the end when she did a skit playing a waitress who encountered different kinds of customers with different kinds of problems. She always listened to them....I mean like she REALLY listened and had some simple yet profound words and wisdom to help them. I cried sometimes, so sweet were her words and actions. Well, of course I wanted to be more like Dolly...I think I still do. I was a waitress at the Hungry Hunter when I met Dave so I related to her job but couldn't rival her kind heart.

Her interactions with other people on TV and her interviews revealed the most down to earth celebrity I had ever witnessed. She expressed a simple faith in her heavenly father, again with humility and gratefulness. 

I heard the news of her passing when I got in the car to come home from the driving range. The newscaster was speaking of her in past tense. OH NO! I said it out loud. Not another one gone. I cried and then suddenly realized how elated heaven was at the same moment I was crying. We cry when we face the departure of a loved one...it's automatic...it's human...it's natural. Loss. Questions. 

And then in the blink of an eye, we see the window on eternity opened and we know our loved one, now living in heaven, is filled with more joy and love and peace than they have ever known. Life is grand for them! They are totally fulfilled with every prayer and question answered. As so it makes that transition, that loss not sting quite so horribly deeply. 

We realize everything is different, yet everything is the same. We still love them. We just can't see them. We still honor them, we just can't see them. We still hear their words and learn from their lives, we just can't see them.

I know with all my heart that Dolly is still Dolly still doing Dolly things. We just can't see her. But God has prepared a place for her so that she can be with him. He made her beautiful and kind and compassionate and creative and talented and full of faith. He won't let any of that go to waste just because she moved away from us. 

Dave and Dolly were born only 18 days apart! 

Dave...January 1, 1946

Dolly January 19, 1946

She lived here about 1 1/2 years without Carl.

I am going on 3 1/2 years since God decided it was time for Dave to go home.

God bless you Dolly and Dave! 

We know where you are...and while we wait to see you again,

 we carry you in our hearts

"God is Nigh"

 

                                                            (AP photo)

In the late 1950s, my parents bought an organ for me, a little one, when I was about 8 years old. The first song I learned to play was "From the Halls of Montezuma"...to the shores of Tripoli. I didn't understand much more about those words than that they were about brave soldiers somewhere fighting a war. I sang the song proudly while I played. I have always had an affinity for the military. Even at a young age, I appreciated bravery and willingness to serve others...qualities I recognized in young men in uniform. I remember watching TV programs in the late 50's about the military..."Men of Annapolis" and"West Point" .

Today is Memorial Day 2026. CSPAN is airing the National Memorial Day parade complete with marching bands, gold star families carrying flags, and Americans of all stripes and colors lining the street. The beautiful American flag is everywhere. It is the day the President will lay the wreath at Arlington National Cemetary while Taps is played.

Today is the day we get to donate to the Gary Sinise Foundation and Tunnel to Towers Foundation. They both have taken up the call to continue to support the families of military men and women who have lost a loved one by paying off home mortgages and providing programs and emotional support.

Today is the day for us to remember those who gave all by enjoying the freedoms for which they fought and died.

"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".

May the words of Abraham Lincoln stir the hearts of all Americans as today we remember "these honored dead".