Denise entered the world at Humana Hospital Clear Lake TX on 8/18/88. She was an angel baby. The first night she came home from the hospital she slept through the night. I was up at three a.m. checking her breathing, because her sister had yet to sleep through the night after almost four years.
Denise was her sister’s dream come true. Janet, barely four, fussed over her as if she were her very own baby.
Even as a toddler Denise liked security. She would have a pacifier in each hand while sucking on another in her mouth.
We had many idyllic years in Texas while her dad worked for Rockwell Shuttle Operations and then Lockheed at Johnson Space Center. At Southshore Montessori, Denise made fast friends with Aisling and Jenna. As a result we had a play group that toured the Art museum, swam in Galveston, enjoyed ice cream at La Kings on the Strand and played under the grand old Live Oak trees at League City Park.
After we moved to Pennsylvania, Denise attended Oakmont Elementary School in Haverford Township. She always had great curiosity and loved to read. Books were her best friends, even today!
In second grade, when we arrived in Florida, she attended Sea Castle Elementary in Miramar, Broward Co. Our lifelong friends, the Hecklers, were part of PTA and school committees there. When Chris Raden and Michelle Boyd, her 5th grade and MOST favorite teachers, tested her reading comprehension, it was at freshman college level. Chris told me the only reason they weren’t sure it was higher was that they ran out of time in the test.
Our move to St Johns County occurred during those dreaded Middle School years. Attending Switzerland Point Middle School was her first real challenge. Denise was not easily accepted here when she went through her “black clothing” phase, a little ahead of her peers. Her friend Shannon Ross saved the day when she skated up to our front door in Remington Forest. Shannon’s family became a family to Denise.
Bartram Trail High School brought more friends and intellectual pursuits into Denise’s life. With her intellect and challenging mind, sometimes the teachers seemed more to be her peers. I will always be grateful to Bill Blythe for his encouragement and respect for her talent.
Denise joined the working world during high school. She wasn’t ambitious in that way and I sent her to apply at MacDonald’s. To her amazement, she was hired to begin on the coming Saturday. She asked me if she really had to go to work there and I told her yes, that unless she had another job before Saturday, she would be asking about fries to earn money. She never worked a day at MacDonald’s because she applied at TJ Maxx in Mandarin. They hired her and she never left.
All through her college years at University of North Florida, she worked the Cash office on the weekends. A wonderful mentor relationship developed with her managers there which continued to her last day. I am most grateful to Harold and Annette and Henry for encouraging her talent and abiding her wit and sass!