Constance A. Danek

is honored with a Brick from Dorothy C. Miller.

My sister Connie was born four and a half years before me, and prepared the "way" for me in our family. Our parents were in many ways ill-suited to parenthood, not prepared for the responsibility, and probably scared to death. Connie had a difficult time of it in her first few years, alternately left to her own devices or subjected to stringent discipline. As in many families, the second child benefited from the "practice" parenting of the first, and so entered the world into a family that already knew something about children. But Connie still had a harder time than I did.

Connie attended three high schools because our family moved three times in four years. This made adolescence even harder than it would have been anyway. In response to this adversity, Connie, soft-spoken and somewhat shy, managed to find and keep lifelong friends. Her loving ways touched their hearts. These qualities of hospitality and friendliness, nurtured as a force of will in a time of need, are part of her natural good nature, and have served her well throughout her life. As a result, she has enjoyed many long term loving associations with a lot of good people.

Connie has spent her life trying to make things easier for others. In any organization or endeavor, she is the person who "thinks of everything." She mediates conflicts and puts others' needs ahead of her own. Loving wife to Joseph Danek, mother of three wonderful young adults, Kathy, Steve, and Robert, and grandmother of six, Connie's devotion to her immediate family is complete, surpassed only by her devotion to her church.

In our adult lives, Connie and I have followed different markers that led us in different directions. I wish her well in the direction she has chosen.

July 17, 2001