My Friend Dee

I found out on Monday that my friend Dee in Philadelphia passed away last Saturday. I haven't seen her in about six years (she was a friend from a previous life), but her passing filled me with a sadness.

As I thought about her though, I also had to smile. She was ten years older than me. I first met her and her husband "Fat Jack" in the late 80's as part of the Delaware River/Chesapeake Bay boating scene.

I smile because she was one of the few women in the whole group I could stand.

Dee and I had absolutely nothing in common besides loving boating and having truck driver husbands. I think she worked in a factory for awhile, but for most of her life she didn't collect a paycheck. Ha, she was really into WWF and the whole wrestling scene, especially Hulk Hogan. I sometimes think she actually like the "villians" more than the "good guys".

Dee was an honest and good soul. She never made any assumptions about people, and I rarely heard her being gossipy or mean. Dee was a simple person, but she could shoot the barbs as well as anyone else. That came from spending most of her life living in the badlands of Kensington. She raised her family on one of the meanest streets in Philly.

For the past ten years, she had been suffering from Parkinsons, and she would shake and slur as she talked but it never held her back, and I never tired of talking with her. Her husband was dutiful in his attentiveness towards her. Roughly-hewn as he is, he treated her with care and tenderness, of course all the time calling her a "damn dago", as was his way.

I remember my husband teasing Dee that she had caught him in his boxers once and swore that she never got over it. She took all of that in good fun, and we laughed and laughed.

Thank you, Dee. Thanks for being my friend when I really needed one. Thank you for living your life and raising your children and just gracing us with your sweet smile for 65 years.

Godspeed, my friend.

SPROUL, DOLORES (nee Paravicini) of Kensington (Phila.) on May 30, 2009 age 65 years. Beloved wife of John "Jack" Sproul; devoted mother of John and Brian (Colleen) Sproul; also survived by one granddaughter Kayla and one sister Bea. Relatives and friends are invited to her Viewing Thursday morning 8:30 A.M. O'NEILL-BOYLE FUNERAL HOME, 'B' and Lehigh. Mass of Christian Burial 10:30 A.M. Visitation BVM Church. Int. Private.