Dorothy Deen Fischer

is honored with a Large Paver from Susan Fischer-Lukens.

My mother Dorothy passed away when I was just five years old and although I remember little about her, she had a huge impact on my life nonetheless. I missed her so much growing up and still do. I have photographs of her and I think she was very pretty, and I always felt good when people told me I looked like her. For a year and a half she tried to carry on but cancer defeated her when she was only 39 years old.

Somehow, when I was a child after she had died, I got the idea that my parents did not plan to have any more children after my two older brothers were born. I don't remember it bothering me a lot; however, I remember asking my father about it when I was older and he said that was not true, that my mother had so much wanted a "little girl." I felt both pleasantly surprised and relieved to hear that.

I asked one of my older brothers how he remembered her and he said she was a deeply religious woman who read the Bible over Sunday evening supper. Interestingly, quite a bit of what he remembered involved how his misbehavior was handled by her. Punishment included sitting on a chair and having his mouth washed out with soap! He goes on to say, "Although she was fair, she was strict as well and difficult to face when I had to tell her something I had done wrong, mainly because I felt I was disappointing her." Continuing, he says, "She had beautifully kind eyes that didn't avoid contact when needed and she could always find something for me to do when I ran out of my own ideas. She was most definitely my guiding spirit....." She is mine too and so I am honoring her in the Plaza.

Submitted by Susan Fischer-Lukens

July 16, 1998 (for Dorothy Deen Fischer)