Thursday, March 9, 2023
Debby has been one of my best friends for over 40 years. We were first introduced through a Wayne County parent advocate, Grace Beebe. Grace had known Chris and Debby for a couple of years when she became my advocate. She teamed me up with Debby and we became quick friends. Debby and Grace introduced me to therapeutic horseback riding and Indian Trails Camp. I was hesitant placing a young child into these activities, but Debby was already full swing into the programs, so trusting her, I followed and never regretted. Our girls became good friends, and we hand many wonderful years.
Fun times included numerous camping and snowmobile trips and we found all these tiny unique spots — Grayling, Silver Lake, Sleeping Bear, Beulah (Spook Hill!), Saint Ignace (the horrible storm!) - Pictured Rocks -Tahquamenon Falls - Kitch-iti-Kipi in Big Springs Cadillac, Saugatuck, Wisconsin Dells, Canada (the hogs!). LOVED our nightly campfires. (Especially with racoons!)
Yes, we were BFF before the initials ever became popular. We would buy souvenirs for ourselves –sets of earrings, rings, and necklaces so that we matched. We called them our sisterhood.
Dave and I would join Debby and Jim for overnight casino trips. Debby was always the lucky one as she usually walked away winning. Several years later Debby and I would use our casino points on girls only weekend trips. We would do more sightseeing than casino and take in places like Dow Gardens, and Meijer Gardens. One time we went on a very scary canoe trip.
My most precious, now-and-forever, memory of Debbie happened only a few weeks ago. I was visiting her at Mary Brook, and a music therapist happened to show up for a first visit. To no avail, she made a profound effort to get Deb to respond. The therapist decided to sing to her. She pulled out the guitar and sang a simple song, “You are my Sunshine.” The therapist then asked Debby to sing along with her. By this time in her illness, Debby’s voice was weak, and all her words were senseless garble, but you could hear her singing her sweet music: “You’ll never know dear, how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away.”
Debby, I will miss you and keep you in my heart forever.
