Dolores Anne Young
A New D. A. Y. Motorcycle Tour
My Everything
I can say so much about my love that there would be no room for any others to post their stories. She is and will forever be my one and only true love. She is my best friend, my lover and my Wife.
My hope is that one day Dolores' Grandchildren that haven't yet been born will read these pages and come to know her and through the words of so many others take pride in the heritage of grace, intelligence, courage and compassion that has defined her.
High School Memories
Two funny stories from our years at Marian kind of stand out:
One took place our junior year--our American History class consisted of exactly 9 students--taught by the assistant principal, who was very intimidating to all of us nerdy, "straight-A" students, but turned out to be a great teacher. There were four girls: Dolores, Ileana (another of Dolores' close friends, who I have also lost, touch with), Yvette, and myself, along with 5 guys. Anyway, during homecoming week that year, a lot of the student body got a little crazy and brought some alcohol to the bonfire (yes, even good little Catholic school students did things like that). As a result, our teacher, as the assistant principal, was tied up in disciplinary meetings all week and we were actually left on our own in the classroom for a day or two to do whatever.
We had just finished reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and us girls decided that Dolores was the "scarlet woman." I have no idea why we came to that conclusion, but we cut out a Red A and decided we should pin it to Dolores' back--the guys thought we were crazy and either ignored us, or one of them kept trying to spoil our fun by whining, "You're going to get us in trouble! You're going to get us in trouble!" The 3 of us girls chased Dolores around the room, held her down and pinned this large A to the back of her shirt, all the while laughing until we cried. Dolores, of course, was very good-natured about it all--always a good sport.
The other story involves a dead cat. As seniors, we decided that taking Anatomy and Physiology might be fun, even though you can see that it didn't turn out to be a great inspiration as neither of us ended up as doctors! Anyway, we spent part of the semester begging the teacher to let us "skip" class and go out for Mexican food at El Patio. The rest of the time was taken up dissecting a rather smelly cat. Dolores and I thought that we would team up with this guy, who we both thought was kind of cute, plus he could do all the skinning of the cat, since he's a guy and that's what guys do. Well, this one was a dud after all, so Dolores and I spent the rest of the semester skinning a dead (that turned out to be pregnant) cat, while our supposed "dream guy" stood gagging on the sidelines.
Rose Shelton-Toman
Second Mother
Keith and I have been best friends since we were 6 years old, so needless to say I have plenty of wonderful memories of Dolores. But the one that always puts a smile on my face is when Keith and I were freshmen in high school at Langham Creek, Dolores would come and pick us up from school in her '91 Ford Explorer (The Exploder). She already knew to have the back seat layed down so that it was nothing but a big open space in the back. Keith, Kevin Sullivan, Josiah Fast and I would put all our school bags up in the front and then we would all curl up into little balls in the back seat. As Dolores would drive off she would be sure to swerve all over the road and take curves as fast as possible so she could laugh at us while we rolled around the back of the "Exploder" and would slam into the walls and each other. I will never forget how willing she was to just let us be boys and beat the hell out of each other no matter how bad it may hurt when we were done. Dolores has always been an amazing woman to me and like a second mother. I will miss her dearly when she is gone and never forget all the good times we had growing up.
Brian T. Blair
SGT, USA
Her Other Son
Any time that I stop and think about Dolores, there is a particular story that always comes to mind. Dolores used to refer to me as her "other son" and told me that she was my second mom, so there are quite a few memorable experiences to pick from. This one in particular however, always makes me smile.
Byron and I were in eighth grade, and we were midway through our history fair project. Byron and I had decided to make a giant wooden backboard that discussed the history of weapons. Our pubescent testosterone was in full force when we decided it would be cool to spray paint our backboard camouflage. Luckily for Dolores, Byron and I chose her garage as the location for this project. We had made a trip to the store and armed ourselves with a menacing arsenal of green, brown, and black cans of spray paint.
As painting the backboard was school work, simply getting it done would have been far too productive. I can't remember exactly who initiated the first battle, but soon Byron and I were engaged in all out spray paint warfare, conveniently contained in Dolores' garage. At some point, Dolores came outside to check up on the two of us, and was a little upset at the new paint job that we had given the floor of her garage. She was even more upset about the paint jobs that we had given ourselves.
Byron and I were completely covered with paint from head to tow. We had not considered how hard it was going to be to remove the paint from our bodies, but Dolores made quick work out of bringing it to our attention. She immediately ordered us into the house and made both of us change into swim suits. Dolores then stuck both of us into the bath tub and left the room. When she returned, she was brandishing a can of powdered Comet and a green scrubby. Dolores began dumping the Comet all over Byron and I, which we both thought was pretty funny. All smiles left the building however, when Dolores put the scrubby into action. The paint did not go without a fight, and Dolores was not going to let it get the best of her. She scrubbed us over and over, removing several layers of our skin along with the paint. I am not sure how long it took for Dolores to emerge victorious over our teenage stupidity, but it felt like an eternity of torture. By the time she was done, we went from green, black and brown to bright red. My entire body burned for about a week.
When I look back on that story, the memory of Dolores standing over our Comet covered bodies makes me laugh out loud. But, to this day, I have an unnatural fear of scrubby pads. I will be forever grateful to Dolores for giving me that memory, along with the countless others that I have had the privilege to share with her and her family.
Jason Carrell
Working at Kohl's
Dear Dolores;
This the first time since you left that I have an address to write to you. I hope your holiday
was a lovely one, at Kohl's it was very busy and a lot of work (thats good). And I remember how hard
you've always worked and enjoyed working at the Mrs. Dept. to keep everything moving this time of
the year especially. I want to thank you for showing me the many techniques I had to learn whenI started at Kohl's; and thanks for writing me a thank you note for and associate experience, its
the only one I've ever got, you're awesome. I miss you and you're guessing smile.
Love you,
always,
Franziska
PS. I'm still bulling the customers into getting
a IC. Ha, Ha,Ha. I don't have a picture, sorry.
The Kid Sister
As you can assume from my former last name, I am Brian's baby sister. Brian and Keith were instant best friends in boy scouts, and I was fortunate that Keith had a younger brother my age. Byron and I spent lots of time together at our brothers' boy scout events, where I was also fortunate to meet Dolores. Over the next 10 years I continued to spend time with Byron and we became friends outside of boy scouts as well. In junior high we were especially close, and I was always the only girl in our group. I think I brought some (small amount) of sanity to Dolores's life! When my dad was sick with cancer and my mom was either in school or at the hospital, Dolores was always available to take me to appointments, pick me up from school, keep me at her house and was overall a wonderful support - like a second mother, and a friend.
The two memories that stand out strongest in my mind when I think of Dolores are #1 of playing "rollapalooza" in the back of her explorer with Byron and jason (see brian's story for an explanation) and #2 diligently working on our history fair project at her house. At some point after Jason and Byron had their spray paint fight I was over at the house when they were working and Dolores put the idea in my head to join the group. With a group like Jason, Byron, Ryan and Van I'm not sure why Dolores felt they needed female guidance - but I was all for it. the next few weeks were spent over at their house almost daily, Dolores and I trying to keep the boys on track and focused.
The relationship I shared with Dolores was so special for me, and it breaks my heart to think the world will lose such a wonderful woman. When she reaches home I hope she'll greet my dad with a big hug and let him know she took care of his kids after he left; she did a wonderful job at it.
Love to Dolores and the family,
Amanda L Wallis
