Lonnie passed away peacefully January 6, 2009 just before midnight. Michelle, Lonnie's son Mac, and close friends were with her throughout the day and surrounded her with love and support as she made her transition.
Please add a comment to this posting (by clicking the comments link below) to share your words of support, prayers, and cherished memories for our special friend, Lonnie DiCarlo.
Lonnie, I remember first really getting to know you as we planned those wonderful Olympics together, along with Pam, Lisa, the Pauls and Cooper. What a fun time we had working together to create one of Life's great memories for our children and ourselves.
ReplyDeleteWe love you and our prayers are with you and Michelle.
Robbie
Beautiful Lonnie,
ReplyDeleteI have loved afternoon visits with you, sitting and chatting peacefully in your home while the dogs lie piled at your feet. Your journey has been so courageous despite its many challenges and throughout it all you somehow kept your sense of humor and positive spirit. You so wanted to live and continue to be the wonderful mother to Michelle that you are but God had other plans for you. Know that she will always remember you as a loving, gentle, kind and precious mother. We will support her in her grief and surround her with our love so that her journey in the future can be filled with loving memories of her wonderful mother.
I thank you Lonnie for being a part of my life,
Ronit
Your inner and outer beauty continue to shine despite the cancer. God's love moves through you in so many ways. May God's peace be yours, your family's, right now. In gratitude for all the ways you give of yourself,
ReplyDeleteyour neighbor Kate
Dear Lonnie,
ReplyDeleteWe only talked once, when I was looking for a dentist. I called you, because you worked at a dentist office. I enjoyed talking to you. You were so welcoming and connecting that I felt that I knew you for longer then just 5 Minutes.
That is how you will live in my memory.
In gratitude,
Mehtap
Dear Lonnie, my friend,
ReplyDeleteYour wisdom and laughter have graced myself and my family these several years. What you have done is good, and wonderful. Know that your children are as special as you are - your lovely Michelle has danced her way into many hearts, and having met Mac, I can glimpse the many gifts he has too. They are both next to my heart, and will stay there.
You have lived your life well. Peace, dear friend, as you move onward. I will miss you.
Mary
Dear Lonnie,
ReplyDeleteI always loved meeting up with you in the waiting room at Decatur Ballet the year that Emma, Michelle, Eloisa and Fairlie were all in ballet class together. I didn't really know you before then, but you were so easy to talk to and always upbeat and fun to be around.
Our thoughts are with you and Michelle. Peace.
Winnie, Norman and Emma Hulme
Dear Lonnie,
ReplyDeleteI am so sad that you are on the other side now.
Thank you for passing through my life. Your kindness, humor and focus are a lasting gift that I will cherish.
Judy
the gentle -moisture laden air here carries Lonnie on its sweet breezes, the gray clouds collect over us in concern, the ravens have come to caw to announce her passing....Now we can re-assure her soul that Michelle will be ok...and so will she. We had a real pounding of rain here in her community right when Lonnie passed...and for a long time after...for the pueblo Indians a sign of great blessing, and that prayers have been received...
ReplyDeleteDear Lonnie,
ReplyDeleteI remember your ready smile and open heart, and regret now my own shyness. Be at peace. Thank you for being my neighbor.
Oh Lonnie, I miss you so much already. Thank you for being a great friend, neighbor, committee meeting baker and tea maker.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Carolyn
Lonnie,
ReplyDeleteGenerous, sincere, funny, warm, loving Lonnie. I hope your transition was as peaceful as they say. I am so sad!
So many Lonnie memories: Michelle, of course, your special Mom-daughter bond; your menagerie, especially dogs; Co-chairing the ELC Parents committee that year (it only *felt* like two!); Washer/dryer problems and poking around in your attic; Dan falling asleep on your soporific sofa; Sam and Michelle at ICS; Tea and home-made pizzelles at Christmastime; Italian nougats--family recipe, of course; and your hair! When we first met it was that thick, long mane of silver--stunning! But you were ready for a change, and had the Lowlights put in (who knew there was such a thing?) and that was beautiful, too. And the mane got shorter with time, but still with the ridiculous thickness, even after rounds of chemo.
You indeed have lived a rich life, raised great kids, nurtured many friends, and helped improve Decatur's dental hygiene--most notably my family's.
Thank you for everything, Lonnie.
Peace.
Love,
Leigh
Our Dear Lonnie,
ReplyDeleteAlways with a ready smile, hug, and laugh. I have been in awe of your consistent optimism, and how you marveled at your many transformations. You have the grace of a butterfly. Peace, love, and many blessings on you in your transition.
Debbie M.
To Michelle and Mac,
ReplyDeleteYour mother was a kind, warm, available neighbor and friend to me and my family for 2 1/2 years. She was immediately easy to know and welcomed us warmly. We often found ourselves swapping stories of faith. She always beamed when she talked of your dancing, Michelle. I think it made her own heart dance to see you move in such joyous, graceful ways. I believe that will only continue.
WHile home recuperating from treatments, she was available a few times to keep my baby, Janie Kate. My child would just melt in your mother's arms - she sensed your mother's warmth and delight in children. Lonnie would take the baby, in the midst of a fussy moment, and immediately my child would relax in her presence. I, as a mother, was grateful for another's comfort for my child.
I will miss your mom's warm smile, funny story-telling, and infectious optimism. She was so gifted in making connections with others. My heart aches for you in this moment, for such an intense loss. I pray for God's comfort and hope to be yours every day. Know that you do not walk through this valley alone.
In gratitude for Lonnie's life well-lived,
Kate
i was amazed at how brave she was. i didn't see her as much near the end, but i remember all the wonderful and silly times we shared in the car when she would pick me michelle and samantha up from school.
ReplyDeletei see that lonnie passed peacefully, and she was very much loved by the community and by others. I hope that she will come to visit us all in spirit some time soon. i hope that michelle and mac will be alright, and know that we are all here for them if they need anything.
My favorite memory of Lonnie was that despite her battling cancer that feisty woman had her 60th birthday at Blind Willies, jamming out to blues music in a crowded smokey bar.
ReplyDeleteWell, actually my favorite memory is her love and devotion to her daughter Michelle who remained her number one concern always.
Lisa Marquardt
Dear Lonnie...from Patti
ReplyDeleteI am honored to have been your friend and hairdresser..! You always had available a kind word and the warmest of warm hugs...and were such a good listener when something was on my mind.
You with your ever sparkling blue eyes, and glistening silver hair, will always be in my heart.....may you rest in perfect peace....
Lonnie was the best hug giver in the world. I will miss that when I visit ELC. It seemed I always ran into her in the parking lot, and whenever I saw her she would give me a big hug, in spite of her chemo bruises on her belly. Farewell my friend and good journey. Hoping for more hugs when we meet again.
ReplyDeleteIdalia
Well Lonnie,
ReplyDeleteI have had trouble knowing how to say all the thoughts and feelings that are going on inside me. Today, I feel like I can be more focused.
I sure thought you were not going to leave, so I was really surprised when I heard hospice had been called. I had a wedding in Va.to go to, so I didn't get home 'till Mon. the 5th. I wanted badly to see you, but when I got over there, the sign said you were resting. So I meditated and prayed some more, instead of seeing you. I am really sad you are no longer here and that I did not get to say goodbye. On the other hand, I am relieved you are no longer here. This last while must have been really, really hard, so now that it is done, is really, really good.
Now your sweet, gentle spirit can be at rest........can relax and move into all you really are and always have been.
I didn't know you well, which is my loss, but what I do know is that you always just oozed loving kindness. It was all over you no matter where you were or what was happening in your life.,,,and heavy stuff was happening. It permeated every interaction so that I was fully embraced by loving kindness whenever I saw you. Bet that's what happened in all your interactions. What a gift you gave to us and to life!
So now, I imagine, you are in a different realm, doing pretty much the same thing, cause I hear, that's what angels do.
My love to you, Beth
Dear Lonnie,
ReplyDeleteYour leaving so quickly was a great surprise to us all, and I will always treasure our conversations during your last week here. Even as your world became the space around your bed, you were thinking of how to make others feel comfortable, including hospice staff.
What will always stand out to me is your warmth and incredibly wonderful sense of fun, humor, and accompanying laughter. It certainly came out in that last forwarded Christmas e-mail! And then more personally, in the truly hilarious time the two of us had trying to help each other get off the floor in my dining room after lunch a month ago--me with my slipped vertebra/pinched nerve and you with your edema and the unsteadiness due to tumor growth. All this after lying there talking and laughing together like schoolgirls at an all night sleep over! And then your funny report of how you and Michelle laughed just as uproariously in your sharing it with her.
What a wonderful role model you have been/are for us all in your courage, loving kindness, unfailing gratitude, good will, steadfast faith, and trust in Life (including this great transition.)
I'll always love you, Lonnie.
Wishing peace and serenity for you, Michelle, Mac, Lonnie's Mom, Bill, and all other family members.
Love, Susanna
Susanna
Sweet Lonnie,
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy that you and Michelle got to make it to Ireland and that I could be helpful in that. I remember talking to you in your living room after you got back and the heart connection for you was so profound and true. When I stand at the top of the hill next summer I know you'll be there with me....in the wind , in the sun, ithe rain- I love you and God's rest to you......Michelle M.
Tonight my outlook calendar reminded me again: "Lonnie-21 weeks overdue." I wrote that note to myself when I heard from the folks at the dentist's office that Lonnie was leaving to participate in an experimental treatment program in Tennessee. I wanted to reach out to Lonnie in some way. Over these weeks she has been much on my mind. Tonight I searched for an update and found she has transitioned into life beyond life.
ReplyDeleteShe wanted lo live so much!! She wanted to be here to watch Michelle grow and to enjoy Mac. She really loved life as much as anyone I have ever known, and she embraced all of it.
I am heartbroken for the planet, and expecially for her children, that she is physically gone.
I am also grateful to have met Lonnie. What was always compelling about Lonnie was her wide open spirit, her wonderful sense of humour, her willingness to always be honest about all things. These are gifts that remain, and I am grateful to have received them.
Lonnie was very much a "pay it forward" sort of person. I will honour her in tangible ways.
And I will hold Michelle and Mac in my prayers always.
May the Lord bless and keep you.
Martha Clinkscales