A CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE OF LORRAINE DOREY
With Love by her children: Carol, Fred, Linda and Gail.
For those who knew her only through others and those who knew her well…

OUR MOTHER WAS:
– A believer in God and Jesus Christ.
– A mother who loved her children.
– Devoted to our father her whole life.
– Devoted to family without regret.
– Very easy to know.
– In love with all children.
– A person who loved to laugh.
– A person with a very big heart.
– Very spiritual in her own way.
– Very kind and patient.
– A very shy lady who was married to a very public person.
– Insecure, especially abouy her intelligence.
– A quiet thinker.
– Appreciative of the little things.
– Very concerned for others.
– Not prejudiced against anyone.
– A good sport.
– A person who tried.
– An amazing innocent.
– One of the funniest people we ever met.
– Concerned about being a burden to other people.
– A lover of people.
– A person more concerned with other people than herself.
– Not great about being self disciplined.
– Not financially sophisticated.
– Very gullible.
– A supporter of her family.
– A young spirit in an aging body.
– Forgiving.
– A person who seldom asked for anything.
– Proud, yet humble and meek.
– Easily tricked.                                                           
– A simple person with a childlike faith.  
– Considerate.
– A person with a good sense of humor.
– Full of Love.
– The matriarch of a clan who loved each other and loved her very much.
– Ahead of her time: She raised her kids on spring water and they were not allowed to sit in the sun which would cause skin cancer.
– A conciliator.
– Very concerned about doing the right thing, but never knew what the right thing was.
– At times a “stubborn Frenchman”.
– Generous and self sacrificing.
– A survivor.
– A good cook who loved spicy spaghetti sauce.
– A little girl.
– A quiet person who gave birth to four very loud children.
– Methodical, despite the chaos created by her kids.
– Organized (and boy did she appreciate her pill organizer).
– Dutiful.

Her Childhood Was Very Difficult
– A little girl who could get anything she wanted from her dad.
– In an orphanage for 7 years after her father died (when she was 8 years old)  and her mother had to go to work.
– Only able to speak and visit with her mother and brothers for a few hours once every three weeks while in the orphanage.
– She spent a year in a boarding school in Canada.
– Second cousin to our father.  They met through the efforts of their mothers.
– Initially not attracted to him because he wore old clothes.
– Employed at an ice cream parlor and a dentist’s office before she married dad.
– Married at 19 with a baby by 21.
– Lived alone in New York City with two kids while our dad was singing with Benny Goodman. 
– “The most beautiful woman in Burlington” according to our Uncle Bob.
– She never stopped mourning the death of her younger brother Bernie at the end of the war. 
 
WE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER:
– Her always looking to see if she had her keys.
– How she was always looking for her glasses even after she began keeping them on a chain around her neck.
– She was always loosing her contact lenses.
– How lucky the world was that she never learned to drive.
– She would believe anything you told her.
– Her remark after dad died that she would have more money if she could only get a credit card.
– Her great support of Hallmark Cards Inc.
– Her love of movies.
– Her love of 100% cotton house dresses.
– That she was a big fan of Michael Landon, and loved a good cry over “Highway to Heaven” and “Little House on the Prairie”.
– Her baking muffins for her son to sell on Sunday for the Missions fund (until he broke her oven).
– The time she called up the bank to find out her balance, and talked to the bank teller for an hour on the phone about life and other matters.
– That despite being very shy she would always talk to anybody sitting next to her on a bus or plane.
– Her best friend for years was our dog, Penny.  They used to dance in the house.
– A big fan of movie magazines, scandal newspapers, and People magazine.
– A listener of talk radio.
– Someone thrilled and charmed by her grandchildren
– Her great recipe for meat loaf (kill it with cranberry sauce).
– Our father’s TV and game partner.
– Someone always willing to try new things.  One night when my father was snoring she whistled in between his snoring. She had read that this would cure snoring… it didn’t.  She tried other cures too.
– A supporter of beauty parlors across the country.
– A mother much shorter than all her children.
– Her ability to take a joke well, but never able to repeat one.
– A fan of Oil of Olay.
– Her tolerance. She and my father used to let us have HUGE pool parties that lasted 12 hours.  (Well that was mostly Gail). Our father would cook all day and my mother would have to drag him away from the party.
– How easily she would misinterpret things. One day she was with some people in a car and saw a sign “Hotel One Block” and remarked what an unusual name for a hotel.  Another time she saw herself in a mirror in a restaurant and said, ‘Look, that woman is wearing the same sweater I am.’
– A secret admirer of red. She always wore a red shirt when she went out to the movies.
– A lover of lobster, a Friday night tradition at our house.
– How she always missed the house on Bates Road where we grew up.
– How she loved going to a good restaurant, but always waited until you ordered first and then she would either order the same thing you did or decided that what you ordered was better than what she ordered.
– A mom who blew a whistle to call us home.
– A lover of a noisy house full of kids.
– How she insisted that our father (who went to bed early and got up early) get out of bed, get dressed and go get the kids at some friend’s party.
– How she was constantly embarrassed by her kids and her husband who loved to wear shorts and sandals when they went out to eat while on vacation.
– How she would laugh and poke us.
– We called her “MA” all the time, which drove her crazy. 
– That some of our friends would also call her “ma”.
– Always avoiding a camera.
– Her constant reference to her eyes in the back of her head.
– Her warnings that the neighbors were watching every time she and dad were going out.
– Her fear of dogs. One day she was screaming in front of her hairdressers shop because she was being attacked by a dog.  When he came outside he found a small dog barking at her.  The hairdresser never forgot that incident.
– She couldn’t swim and yet we had a swimming pool.
– Chicken and beef bouillon cubes.
– A lover of Soap Operas. We had 5 TV’S in the house when we were growing up all tuned to the soaps as she cleaned house.
– The never ending pile of ironing.
– She was always weeding around the pool even though in the spring she couldn’t tell the weeds from the flowers.
– Confounded that all Gail ever wanted for school lunch was baloney sandwiches.
– A mother always in the kitchen.
– She was always trying things she read in magazines.
– A collector of nail polish and lipstick.
– A keeper of a fabulous button collection.
– How she was never able to finish her meals.  She said she lost her appetite when cooking.
– Into dry milk and Carnation Instant Breakfast.
– Always holding her gloves instead of wearing them.
– Her ability to get bank tellers to fill out the bank slips for her by telling them she couldn’t see well.
– A lover of Chinese food with hot sauce.
– One who never threw things out.
– Her improving communication skills throughout her life.
– She never got behind the wheel of a car (thank God).
– The many hot flashes.
– She would often light a fire when we took our winter baths.
– Our friend.
– Always remembering when to send anniversary cards … but sometimes getting the spouses names wrong.
– Able to get folks to reach for things for her.
– Her sadness when people on the bus started giving her their seat.
– Her getting shorter.
– A person always aiming to please.
– Her many hilarious mistakes. One time she kept complaining about the cricket in her apartment that was keeping her awake.  It was her smoke detector that had a bad battery.
– Her shyness about attention and publicity.
– She was always ready to go to the movies on 5 minutes notice.
– A card player who could never remember the rules.  When playing bridge she frequently confused the opponents by her bidding because they didn’t realize that she just couldn’t remember the conventions.
– She would only sing with the dog.
– In attendance of a Bible study for a number of years to please her daughter.
– Always being told not to read in the dark, to close the refrigerator door (we could have used more of that one), to get our hair out of our eyes, not to walk on the wet floor, to stand up straight; and many more.
– She never wanted telephone calls from us to end.
– Her embarrassing remarks. Once during a free hearing test for the elderly she told the woman conducting the test that she did not have to yell at her.  Another time when taking an eye test she kept repeating the last line of the eye chart for the doctor even though not being asked.  Of course she was reading it wrong.
– Always saying goodbye to her kids who had to fly home to other places. That got harder as the years went on.
– Someone who thought 5 day underarm deodorant pads were supposed to be worn for 5 days.
– A user of very big and sturdy boxes of Kleenex, some of which were always kept up her sleeve.
– The keeper of a full array of vitamins.
– Her love of aprons and housecoats that had pockets.
– The many lists, notes, and reminders…..
– Walking to the store for “something” EVERY DAY.  Many times as we returned she would remember something new that she needed for dinner.
– Married in a maroon velvet dress with a white lace collar.
– Constantly wanted to feed us – never wanted to eat alone.
– Always mixing up our names. How very proud she was of her kids.
– How her arthritis pains would disappear when she saw any of her grandchildren.
– Her response: “you little stinker”.
– She always tried to cut her face out of pictures because she didn’t look beautiful anymore.
– When taking your hand to cross the street she would comment on your chapped hands.
– You had to drag her to a party – but once there she would always enjoy herself immensely.
– She hated to see doctors (except for Dr. Simon our old family doctor) because all they ever wanted to do was put you in a hospital.  When she first came to LA and Fred took her to see his doctor for the first time.  He put her in the hospital that afternoon.
– The neighbor’s observation after only two meetings: “Easy to feel close to because she was so friendly & cheerful.  Her smile and sense of humor will be deeply missed.”
– She always said that she would never live with any of her kids after dad died.  She kept her word.  She died six weeks before moving in with her son.
– Her last words to Fred (said with a smile) before going to sleep the night of her death – “you had garlic for dinner didn’t you?”

Our mother lost the beauty of her youth,
but she never lost the inner beauty of her spirit.
Our mother is – Safe with God now – and she will be greatly missed.