DELLA chapter 125

Before I write about Della as my wife, I had asked a couple of friends to give me their insights growing up with her. This note is from Donna Barach, Her and John were visiting us in Canby, OR the weekend before Della died. Being the consummate hostess and wanting them to be more comfortable than herself she bravely tried to visit, but we could all see she was struggling. They did not stay as long as the planned and when the left that Saturday, I did all I could to convince her to let me take her to the hospital. As usual she refused to go, I argued with her on Sunday morning telling her I did not want to lose her without doing all we could to save her life. She conceded.

1953 class photo

What do I remember about Della? Well, I've already mentioned the little girl, dressed in pink, with the golden ringlets. I think I remember her, more than any of the other kids, as part of the Red Deer Alliance Church. Merla was there, too (one of her best friends from grade two), and the two of them were invariably together :). There were also the Crosley kids (Ron, Stan, Kathy), but I think they'd moved to Edmonton before you (Clyde) went to Red Deer. Others came and/or left: Jean Gifford (she was the other life long friend who lived two blocks away), Floyd & Audrey Grunau, Bob & Vi Rose--but Della was always there.

And she almost always had that beautiful smile, even though I seem to remember that she didn't necessarily feel great (she lived with a heart murmur her whole life). She was very active in the Youth Group and I recall at one campfire social that she asked us to sing "Dear Jesus Abide With Me" which was a favorite of hers. She sang is various groups, and since we were both altos, we often sang side by side in the choir. (She convinced me to sing “Abide With Me.” as a duet at the Red Deer church after we were married. That was the one and only time I san in church.)

Della and Leroy, her brother, as teens
at the corner of mom's house,

I remember that she worked for several years at the little Corner Store a few blocks from the High School. My grandparents (with whom I was staying during my grade 11 year) lived up on the north hill, but I often walked home from school and I would occasionally stop at that little store and buy something to eat along the way.

We even shared the same boyfriend...not at the same time). I don't know if she ever mentioned Ed to you. (I knew Ed. (We both worked at Alpha Dairy at the same time and he came to some of the college events the summers I lived there.) He's another one I had always known, He passed away before Della,

Although I didn't actually live in RD for any great length of time, I always kind of felt like I belonged. In fact, when you mentioned on your blog about the great number of Red Deer young people attending CBC the fall of 1964, I thought, "Yes, and you could probably have added 2 more." Arlene Dyck Peters and I were quasi-Red Deer Alliance young people because we often spent days off in Red Deer during nurses training and the year we worked before going to CBC. We attended Beulah Alliance in Edmonton, but felt more connected to the church in Red Deer.

PS: I should have remembered Donna had Red Deer connection. I have posted a photo of Della talking with here grandmother. I don’t think I knew about Arlene, We were all at CBC together. Arlene married Dave who wrote earlier in my blog. The whole Red Deer connection gets more and more entwined. Those days there were terrific.

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