3-8-14 Dotti Sedlock, The Woman Behind the Smile, Eulogy By Bob Sedlock
Dotti Sedlock, The Woman Behind the Smile - By Bob Sedlock, March 8, 2014
Watkinsville First United Methodist Church
AVOC
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March 9, 2014
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Wendell Dawson, Editor
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Dotti Sedlock
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Betty and I attended the Memorial Service for Dotti Sedlock on Saturday. We only knew her in recent years. She always had a smile. Dotti was a victim of Alzheimer’s. Her husband, Bob, and she attended WFUMC faithfully.
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They attended the 8.45 service as we did. Bob was always present at her side and was very attentive to her needs. We met and interacted in the Coffee line and fellowship time before Sunday School started. A little over a year ago, she moved to Arbor Terrace. Bob visited regularly and she was on the Seekers SS Card List.
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Dotti Sedlock was a special person and her husband told us more about her at her Memorial Service in a very touching way. She and her smile will be missed.
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Dotti Sedlock, The Woman Behind the Smile
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By Bob Sedlock, March 8, 2014
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Dotti Sedlock
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EULOGY BY HUSBAND AT Watkinsville First United Methodist Church
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Intro
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In behalf of my son Scott, daughter Wendy and her husband Vic, and grandchildren Madeline, Olivia, Will, Stephanie and Savannah. I thank you for taking the time to participate in Dotti’s Memorial Service.
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Dotti and I have only been in Watkinsville since 2008 consequently many of you don’t know that much about Dotti. When we arrived she was already having problems with her thinking and speech. She would say a few sentences then lose her train of thought. Communion time was quite an event as she wanted to stop and talk with the children on her way to and from the communion rail.
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As I read through the cards of condolences or spoke with some about her passing, many remarked that they remembered her by her big smile, but knew very little about who she really was. So... what I would like to do here today is to tell you about the woman behind the smile. Her DASH in life was from 1937 to 2014. It was very important to Dotti that during the DASH she try to make a difference with her life. So I’ll start by giving you an introduction to her parents and siblings and then go into talking about how she lived her DASH.
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Her parents -Larry and Lillian Brammer
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Larry was born of German descent and taught Dotti about the proper way of doing things. He liked to have her attention (or insisted on it) while he was home repairing whatever. She was his Dotsi. He would methodically take things apart, show her how to organize the parts in a row, fix the problem, and put them back together showing her every step on how it was done. If he was painting he would tell her how to prepare the wood and the type of paint to use. From his training, Dotti could almost fix anything. All she had to do was sit down, analyze the problem and come up with a logical solution on how to fix it.
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Her mother’s name was Lillian of English/Irish descent. Dotti had the greatest love and respect for her mother. Through the years she often talked about how much she missed her mother. Lillian was a stalwart in the church volunteering for the things that women normally do. Lillian was remembered mostly by her love for children. For many years she had been in charge of the church’s nursery and on her death it was given the name of the Lillian Brammer Nursery. It was through Lillian that Dotti learned her love for children, love for the church, and the basis for doing good for others. During the time of growing up in Youngstown Ohio, Dotti taught children’s Sunday school and assisted in supporting the youth programs including weekend field trips.
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Through her brothers she learned something about maintaining cars, playing sports, and being a Tom Boy. Her brothers were both volunteers helping to do good with whomever they were in contact with. Jack notably donated 65 gallons of blood to the Red Cross during his lifetime, received the highest award in scouting (Silver Beaver) for a non scout. Also drove burn victims to and from Cleveland’s Shriner Burns hospital. Dotti had a lot of Jack’s attributes in helping people in need.
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Dotti and her sister Arlene were very close to each other. As children they sang duets in church. Their favorite hymn was In The Garden. Through life they Tap danced to East Side West Side (& did a dance shuffle-shuffle). In later years they were both into teaching each other various craft work.
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Arlene married at a young age and moved to the state of Maine with her husband. Later in life Arlene cared for Lillian who had become afflicted with the Alzheimer disease. Dotti visited her mother as often as she could and made it a goal to try and find ways to stimulate Alzheimer victims into some meaningful mental activity.
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How We Met
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Dotti and I met in Youngstown in January of 65 at the local Army and Navy club. My friends and I went there sometimes to take a break after a day of attending classes at Youngstown University. Dotti worked at Blue Cross and sometimes came to the A & N to visit with her good friend Sally and husband Sid. Sal and Sid were managers of the club. Dotti was 25 at the time and she was hot hot hot! We dated for about 3-4 months. Then I graduated and went to work for IBM in Endicott NY. A month later we decided we were living too far apart and decided to get married. We were married two months later in Sept of 65.
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We were married at her church and had a Candlelight wedding and a Tea and Cookie reception. After it was over, we quickly changed clothes and headed to the Army and Navy club where Sal and Sid had a 2nd reception set up for all our Army and Navy friends.
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The next day we started on our honeymoon and went to Lake Placid. From there we went to Endicott and began our marriage. In Endicott Scott and Wendy were born. From Endicott, we went to Cincinnati, Marietta, Jasper, and here to Watkinsville.
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Dotti did many, many things in her lifetime. When she saw something of interest she just had to try and make it. Usually she mastered that something within a short and then was off to do something else. So, I want to memorialize her by telling you about her Dash through life.
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Art Work
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She got her formal training on Saturdays at the Youngstown Art School. Her biggest desire growing up was to become a cartoonist for Walt Disney. She had a scholarship possibility to attend a college in Chicago but her father didn’t think girls should go away to school. So she lost the opportunity of having that scholarship, and through other family issues, had to go to work. She eventually lost her dream to become a Disney cartoonist.
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But here is what she did do.
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·She learned from the art school to paint with acrylics and she painted scenery which she usually gave away to her siblings.
·From her sister she learned Theorem Painting.Theorem Painting is an Early American art that was taught to girls of that period. In theorem painting you use method of layering stencils on a velveteen type fabric and rub in different pigments to create the basic theorem.You then finish the design with a fine point brush. You can see some of her theorems on the Remembrance table.
·She also did Toll Painting, Pen and Ink Drawings, Dremel Tool Carvings on wood, created a Family Puzzle (12 cubes (4x3) in a frame that had a family picture laminated on each side, i.e. 6 pictures ), Pysunky (an art of eastern Europe that uses wax, a stylus, and dyes to create a design on eggs). She also had an eye for graphic design for which she had some training.
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Photography
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Her mother had a Brownie camera and carried it with her at all times taking pictures. She passed her love of picture taking down to Dotti, but Dotti took it a step further and downloaded her pictures to the computer to make greeting cards. Many of them were Christian Greeting cards and she included bible verses on the cards that were relative to the picture.
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She also had a video camera that she used to records vacations, family visits and children activities. But if you watch a 1 or 2 hour unedited video it can be very painful. For example, one time after I shot a scene I walked with the camera turned on for about 15 minutes with the camera hanging at my side. So, she decided to become a videographer and download the recordings to the computer and edit them down to a reasonable amount of content and time. She then inserted chapters, photo shots, music and comments. She stretched the limits of both software and hardware technology by the amount of digital information the computer had to process.
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She did Craft Activities
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·Used Stamp Art in conjunction with fancy cutting scissors and papers to make special greeting cards for close friends and family.
·She made a Doll House for Wendy complete with lighting, Hobby Lobby furniture, and special handmade furniture that she made.
·At one time or another she did Huck Stitch, Cross Stitch, Tatting, Sand Art and whatever else that could be done with a needle.
·While the kids were in college she helped our finances by doing Craft shows on weekends selling her craft items, Theorem paintings, and potato bins. For the bins she contracted with a woodworker in Cleveland GA to make the bins and then she would stain them and paint a design on the lids.
·She also created a business and had a sales rep in 6 states.
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She did Furniture Repair
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Reupholstered a couple of chairs, recaned a damaged cane sea, refinished antiques (Civil war trunk (her specialty), an RCA Victrola, a Cleartone Radio cabinet into a bar, and a baby highchair in which she had to fashion replacement parts. )
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She did Sports
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Captain of HS basketball in Youngstown, played softball in Cincinnati; 3rd base and catcher….good hitter, played on our subdivision’s ALTA tennis team in Marietta…went to the finals in Atlanta.
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Family Activities
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As a Mother
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Did what most parents did, attended T- Ball games, soccer games, swimming meets, various Church activities for children & adults, chaperone for youth group trips, and painted sceneries for plays. She also volunteered her time to be a cub scout den mother, girl scout leader, assistant teacher, and helped in disaster relief with the children when a tornado came through Cincinnati.
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With the help of a neighbor who was into trains, Scott and Dotti set up Scott’s trains on a ping pong table that ran multiple trains on one track. She was now educated into Double Pole Double Throw Toggle railroad switches. She especially liked doing the scenery around the tracks with houses, roads, lakes and mountains.
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As a Grandmother
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She did craft projects with the grandchildren when we visited or they came to our house. Every day together was a reason to sit down and do a project. And now they have a treasury of photos and videos that recorded those moments.
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She had a Lot of Church Friends
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She sang in church choirs. In Jasper it was the Bent Tree Presbyterian Church. In Marietta it was the Mt Bethel Methodist Church (At XMAS usually a 100 member choir and 20+ members from the Atlanta Symphony.
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While at Mt Bethel she along with a church team and did 3 Mission Trips to a Methodist camp in Estonia that was administered by Estonians of Russian ethnicity. Every year the camp brings in about 60 children for a week of vacationing, interaction with other children, and Christian education. Most of the children are runaways found on the streets of Tallinn or from relatively poor families living in that section of the country. Her position on the team was to plan and furnish the crafts that blended into the minister’s bible theme for the week. To do this she enlisted the aid of many of her friends to pull these crafts together.
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We moved to Bent Tree in 2001
(a1100 home mountain retirement community outside of JasperGA)
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In her 1st year she became chairman of the Activities Committee. Her basic mission was to have an activity for the community every month. Some of the major activities that she created are still in effect today:
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Annual Regatta: There were racing heats for canoes, kayaks, fishing boats, sailboats and even inner tubes.
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Annual Amateur show from talented and “untalented” members of the community)
Annual Senior Olympics complete with opening and closing ceremonies. Had team events for shuffle board, Horse (in basketball), 3 legged races, fastest time in dressing and undressing in oversized clothes, etc.
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She justified purchasing an expensive overhead projector that was used for a monthly movie night, Super Bowl parties, Kentucky Derby parties,UGA games, community meetings, etc..
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She designed the Bent Tree Memorial Garden. There were too many monuments going up around Bent Tree so a committee asked her to design a Memorial Garden for cremains. She located it next to a creek that cascaded down into the woods, had a view of the mountains, benches for mediation, and a walking path through the garden. A station recorded the names of the deceased and their dates.
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People Activities
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In high school, she was on the National Honor Society, a member of the WOW sorority, and did the graphic design for her school’s year book (on Remembrence table). Her yearbook was filled with comments from her fellow classmates.
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As a member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce Wive’s Club she chaired two blood Drives in Endicott NY.She placed her posters through town and advertised it through a radio spot. The Drives were very successful.
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Earned four Hero T-shirts for donating blood to the Red Cross. To get a T-shirt a person must donate 4-5 pints per year.She gave blood till she could no longer answer the interview questions.
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In Marietta, she visited with Nursing Homes trying to develop Alzheimer Tools to help victims stimulate some type of brain activity. Her prototype tools were developed uniquely for men and women with the ability to change out parts. Dotti visited Assisted Living Homes in GA, TN and LA where she did research and spoke to caregiver groups on her findings. She also worked with the small business bureau at GT trying to develop funding and patents for some of ideas. She also spoke at a conference in Atlanta.
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In 2008 we moved to Watkinsville. In 2009 we joined this church. And in Dec 2012 she moved into Arbor Terrace, a victim of Alzheimers herself. When she went in, I think she thought her purpose there was to help care for the people. She went around to each one, rubbed them on the back, tried to communicate, but neither could get their words out to understand what the other was saying.
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Through my recollection of these activities, I hope you now have a better understanding on just who was the woman behind the smile. She completed her DASH on February 25th 2014. We were married for 48 ½ years. Unfortunately her sister Arlene entered a long term care facility last week because she also has Alzheimer’s disease.
Dorothy was greeted by her Heavenly Father on Tuesday, February 25th and reunited with her mother, Lillian Jennings Brammer and father Lawrence Brammer; brothers Don Brammer and "Bruv" Jack Brammer and his wife, Pat.
. Dorothy grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. Incredibly blessed with talent and a pinch of spunk, Dorothy was the captain of her South High School basketball team as well as the graphic artist for her class yearbook. She loved to tell her stories of Idora Amusement Park, Handel's ice cream, and life on Ravenwood Avenue. She spoke fondly of her sorority of girlfriends at South High. She worked dedicated hours at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Ohio until her groom, Bob Sedlock, led them to Endicott, New York, Cincinnati, Ohio and Marietta, Georgia. She and her husband enjoyed their retirement in the Bent Tree Community in Jasper, Georgia where she led the Activities Committee as well as designed the Memory Garden.
. Since 2008, she had made her home in the Watkinsville/Athens area. She carried on the memory of her mother by baking a batch of her "famous" apple tarts for those she met. Dorothy was a member of Watkinsville First United Methodist Church.
. Dorothy led her life using her talents of artistry, ministry and love for family. "Don't let the white hair scare ya!" was a motto she often used. Dorothy pursued all of her passions with full focus and 100% dedication. Her attention to detail was remarkable and shined through her Christian greeting cards, photography, painting, and antique refinishing. Family was a priority for Dorothy. She believed in conversation above television, no interruptions at family mealtime, and attending church as a family. Her grandchildren knew Nana would arrive with her "paw-jects" of arts and crafts for them to enjoy together. Dorothy made sure that their new home had a built-in room under the stairs she called "the special place" just for her grandchildren to relax and have fun.
. Whether teaching Sunday school, working with youth groups, singing in the choir, or spreading the Gospel around the world through missions, Dorothy's desire was to have God's light shine through her. Dorothy spent several years developing tools to be used by those afflicted with Alzheimer’s. She worked closely with a major University during this process. She was asked to speak at several nursing homes to the caregivers. Dorothy would say when reflecting on good times, "Where would we be without our memories?"
. Her spirit is carried on by her dedicated husband of 48 years, Bob Sedlock; son Scott Sedlock of Missouri; daughter Wendy Harrison and husband Vic of Bishop; her "friend-for-life" sister, Arlene Brown and husband Bob of Florida; sister-in-law Dee Brammer of Florida; grandchildren Madeline, Olivia, and William Harrison, Stephanie and Savannah Sedlock; and her favorite 14 nieces and nephews.
. Dorothy would like everyone who reads this celebration of her life to be motivated to be all that you can be. She believed that you should finish every task Life hands you with your "signature"... as you leave a mark on everything you do... Make your "dash" between life and death a positive influence.
. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Alzheimer’s Association or any charity that seeks to spread the Good News of Dorothy's friend, Jesus.
. "I will not forget you. See! I have engraved you in the palm of my hands." Isaiah 49-55:13 Memorial service will be Saturday, March 8th at 11AM at Watkinsville First United Methodist Church.
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