A Shining Star

  Delane was a daughter of the country of Belize. (Where the Blue Hole is located) She and her daughter immigrated here a few years ago. Delane began working at our front desk. Two of her uncles had worked for us in the past and were great and she followed in their footsteps.

She seemed to be a version of my granddaughters. Her cell phone would never leave her hand it was probably super glued to her hand. Every day she would arrive about 15 minutes early for work and she would come to my office where she would set up for her photo shoot! She apparently, had followers that were wanting to see her lips pursed in a barage of photos.

Every day she would have a different book to read. Mostly they were motivational books like The Four Hour Work Week or Norman Vincent Peal’s Think & Grow Rich. Then she started to read books, on marketing which was more in my wheelhouse. I enjoyed sharing my knowledge with her and she did begin marketing herself online more and more.

One day I was making a dinner run for the staff and  I was focused on Chicago’s finest hot dogs. I have heard people ask for ketchup before and I would give them a hard time but many mothers give their kids ketchup to cover their food to get them to eat something different. In all my years of being a hot dog connoisseur though I had never heard anyone ask for mayonnaise for their hot dog! I just couldn’t do it. I would not do it. I gave her two packs of mayonnaise but I could not watch I would have gagged. For the health of our friendship, I had to stay away from hot dogs in the future.

Then today I got the call. This twinkling star from Belize light’s went dark. From what I understand it was less than two weeks and she was gone. A rare aggressive form of cancer. I will never again hear her calling “Mister Earl” from the stairway on her visit to our studio where she was definitely, the star.