Connie Dvorak, mother to Jessica and Gordon, wife to Emil, sister to Mary, Charlie and Karen, human-mother to Bridgette and the late Murphy, feeder of Beauregarde and the late Miss Kitty, friend to all who knew her, passed on early this morning after a long battle with cancer.

I first got to know Connie when I was a senior at Indianola High School.  I was a science kid who mostly preferred the company of teachers to other students, so I would hang out in the science office before school and between nearby classes.  Connie was the science department assistant at that time, so she was usually in the office and we'd talk about things like what was going on around school or what Jessica was up to at Grinnell her freshman year (I had been in Academic Decathalon with Jess the two years prior).  When Ian, Phil and I went with some others TPing for Homecoming, we made sure and hit the Dvorak house - it was a sign of affection.

In the years since graduation, I have spent much time at the Dvorak house, as Jessica would come home often for holidays and breaks and weekends.  Connie was usually there, sometimes watching TV with us, playing pinochle (trying to enforce her "a card laid is a card played" rule), telling us to be sure and keep it down when walking past the neighbors' house late at night (as the sign said, "Shh! Baby sleeping!"), and putting up with our experiments in funnel cake making and the occasional batch of cookies or daquiris.  Over the years the Dvorak house has become very much a home-away-from-home for me and others.

Connie was always willing to open her family holidays up to others.  When my familys had nothing going on Christmas day, she would let me come over for the traditional turkey and dressing meal that both Jess and I love.  When I had nobody around on the 4th of July in 2003, she and Emil let me watch the fireworks with them from the front steps.  I can think of many Christmases (with the plastic light-up Santas), Easters (with the plastic light-up bunnies), and Thanksgivings (with the plastic light-up pilgrims and candy corns) with time spent at the Dvorak home.

In the Dvorak basement, where we would throw our friends' Christmases, Birthday get-togethers, Days of Our Lives watchathons and generally hang out when friends were in town, there was this Kleenex head of Connie's.  You can see one at http://www.grrl.com/sake.html as an example.  When new people were over, I would show them the head as a sort of welcome and initiation - it was just the sort of kitschy retro cool thing.  When I moved into my home last year, Connie got me a Moa statue head kleenex holder as a house-warming gift in tribute to my affection for the Kleenex head.  Kind of like when she got Ian the singing Henry VIII bust for his Simpson College graduation - she thought of the good funny gift for others.

Connie was the type of person who would tell you just to walk right in from then on if you had waited at the door the first few times visiting.  She was the type who would take her daughter's friends out for dinner with the family and refuse money if you offered up money because she wanted to do something nice for Jess' friends.  She's the type that would allow friends like me to go on family trips like the one to Pensacola last year.  She allowed friends to expand the family instead of standing apart separately.

The past couple years had been very hard for her, with so many ups and downs in her fight against cancer.  For such a strong-willed woman, it was an incredibly difficult past year of having to learn to rely on others for the sake of her own health, but she passed it with much humor and love for her family.  Seeing Gordon and Theresa get married last weekend meant the world to her, as I'm sure did having her sister Mary up from Pensacola for these last few weeks.

Connie was the best kind of person, caring and open to all who knew her.

She will live forever in the love of her family and many friends.

Her time was far too short, though undeniably well spent.