Donna and Jacque happily skiing, too many years and places to recall where??  Those were the best of days and of times to recall.   

Most of us can post some of Donna’s  exquisite acts of kindness and community caring.  She happily stepped up at my urging to host a large welcome party for a new, out-of-state, principal at Vista High, back in the late 1980’s.  And, like an undercover agent, Donna could affect minor acts of kindness that would never be known, nor exalted.

I once showed up at her home for one of those lively dinner engagements and non-stop buzzes of beauty, brains and business echoing in every corner, when she noticed that I had just gotten a run in my stocking!  “Follow me upstairs, she said.  Minutes later I was offered a drawer full of packaged nylons and asked to select my size and color preference!  I did.  I swear she had about 25 packages to choose from!

Another time she called me and said, “Oh, guess what”?   “I don’t know, what”,  I said.  She continued,  “I have this lovely personal assistant I have trained, and she will be ready to assist you next week.  Would Monday work for you?”  I was touched at how much she cared that I was raising 5 children and working full time for my husband!  She wanted to make my life more efficient and less busy.  How many of us have ever had a friend like that, or have been that friend?  That was Donna:  the ultimate hostess and heroine in big and small matters!

 When I looked for photos documenting these great trips and memories with Donna, I found very few with her in them- she was always the one taking the awesome photos of us growing up, living a great life in Vista, traveling around.  We have her to thank for documenting all these great moments. 

-       I recently went downstairs in the Jaoudi house, and saw the hundreds of photo albums that Donna had and all the wonderful photos, and I realized that’s why I have those same albums in my place in SF (with much of the same photos).  And I was reminded of all the white envelopes she sent me over the years, with photos inside, with a sticky- hi Mac, photos for you. love, dj

-       I loved how she would always sign her notes ‘love and hugs, dj’

-       Back in the 80s, she took 6 of us (all in high school at the time) to Rosarito on vacation. No idea what prompted that, but we had so much fun!

-       We all went to Toronto, Canada for a soccer tournament, where we were celebrities because we came all the way from California- I think it was this trip that Donna let a few of us stay with her in her hotel, rather than with our host families, and we learned how to order room service.  That was awesome, and my Mom really appreciated that :)

-       The Jaoudis invited me go to Jamaica for vacation the summer between High School and College, and I couldn’t go because I had soccer training for college.  But Davis went, and Donna took all these professional photos of Davis, in this tropical setting, because she was going to be a model.  We recently found those photos and had a good laugh. 

-       Donna and my Dad were pals.  As Julie would say ‘kindred spirits’.  They had a similar sense of humor and quick wit.  I am not sure if my Dad just couldn’t hear Donna or what, but my Dad would just kind of chuckle and so would Donna, and I am not quite sure what they ever talked about. 

-       I wrote a column in my college newspaper after the Rodney King riots in ’92 and I sent Donna a copy of my published article.  She wrote me back and said she was proud of me and only wished she could be as good a writer as me.  What an amazing compliment to get from her.

-       I loved her photographs, as did everyone.  I especially loved the ones with the blue doors in the photos, so she gave me one.  It’s in my apartment and I am so thankful I got that from her.

-       I loved how she was such a bad driver.  I laugh when I think of the Range Rover she had with the BIG Band-Aid sticker on it.  That was so funny.  I remember this one time, I was at the intersection across from Lincoln Middle School, and I saw Donna pick up dry cleaning at the place across the street.  She had fit her Range Rover into the smallest spot, in front of the dry cleaning store, that was not a parking spot, and it was on the edge of the intersection.  I saw her get into the car, reverse the Range Rover, practically make a 3 point turn in one of the smallest spots ever, drive over the curb and then drive away (Band aid was front and center on the back window). 

-       I always loved the red grapes she would constantly have on her kitchen counter.  I would always pick at them, grabbing one at a time, and she would say ‘MAC!!!’ Don’t pick at them- take a bunch at a time!”  She didn’t want her grape bunches looking sparse. 

-       I always looked forward to getting Donna’s Christmas letters.  They were entertaining, yet informative and reflective.

I could go on forever, but wanted to share a few highlights.  I will miss Donna a bunch like everyone else, but thankfully I have these great, most hilarious, memories that I can fall back on.  Love, Julie Mac