Kathryn Jean Dolce

My mother is the funnest, most beautiful, intuitive, generous, selfless, smartest, bravest, woman who only wanted for my and her children's happiness, which was obvious – and, such a great lady, gracious, fierce … it's endless.  I think she was a born mother, I wouldn't have wanted another mother. Matthew, my brother, and I knew how lucky we were early on to have her.  As it says in a ‘Wrinkle in Time’ mother is a one, select & special, word – Although Matthew David Wood has passed, she is survived by myself, her daughter Charity Noelle Wood, and son Michael Thomas Wood, my father Michael Walter Wood with whom she has three children, Grandson – my nephew Luke, her sister, brother, nieces and nephews. She is, was, a very laidback woman, from the MidWest. … “When I had a little girl, I was hoping she would be very neat [like interesting, and just plain cool], a 'neat' person, and she is” my Grandmother Jean said.  She hand-knit socks and sweaters, and did beautiful embroidery – which her mother and Grandmother also did – Mom absolutely loved animals.  I'd come home from college to a school of kittens she saved, or a lame hound dog that sat in one corner all day.  She saved a dog from a river in winter, it was in the newspaper.  I feel her around me all the time, and I'm well aware she's in Paradise, in heaven, and my angel & protector.  She died unexpected in her home – she's such a strong and mellow person, but it's important to note that she did not suffer. She is dearly loved, and I told her so all the time. … This is Canandaigua Lake, NY, where we're from -- all of my family sails, and there would be boat races we'd go to on this lake, & she's with her first child here. Quite a precious and rare person. She always picked up the phone when I'd call, and I always got sentimental gifts and cards on my birthday, or even Valentines she made me. She'd write me good humored letters, a very lighthearted, funny, lady.  If I said something odd she'd call me a “goose on the loose” and still talked in baby language to me as an adult. & call the refrigerator “fridgedater” to be funny, or pajamas were “pajamises” glasses were “glass asses”-- She just tickles me with the things she'd say.  And, kept letters from my brother, myself, or my Great Grandmother I still have.  She wrote me a letter when I was at school in NYC that I didn't receive till I got home, because she wanted to drive and visit me.  It said, “Purchase is not on the map, you're not allowed to be someplace that isn't on the map” – And, my birthday card from age 19 said “what are you catching up to me?!,” and claimed she was 38 when I was 19, which is of course – not true.  She'd tell me “If I looked like you” … which she did & I reminded her of this, “I'd want to make money off that face” – She went back to school when she was in her mid fifties to be a CNA, LPN, and was first in her class. … I made my own clothes because no one was selling things I aspired to wear at the time, on her sewing machine in high school with a sticker on it that said, “Jesus Cares” -- & she was very much an immaterialist even though we always had cool stuff around, magically, and nice things. Definitely – not – a materialistic woman.  Mom's Dad was an Osteopath, and he was in the CIC, so CIA & a pilot's mechanic till his first child was born. And, she worked in a health food store where my Dad worked in an audio store after he was in the military as a pilot's mechanic.  He bet his co-worker he could get a date with her, and he didn't think it was possible, this co-worker didn't – because she was drop dead gorgeous.  She is a sweetheart, and always had been.  So, she told me that on their first date he had pit stains though he wore a suit. She thought, “he must be really embarrassed, that must embarrass him," such empathy.  My Dad is, of course, an Engineer with an Engineer's compartmentalizing mind so that – one wouldn't think so, but she knows people's deeper emotions.  But, as my Grandmother has said, “I always thought your Dad had a good face” … My brother Matthew was a creative soul much like her, he made gliders in the second grade, and made himself guitars – when he was ten.  He was a rock climber, and outdoorsman.  He was in the SEARS program in the airforce, and then was first in his class, and squad leader for the military police. He didn't like it, and had someone bash in his knee with a billiard pole to get out. He'd write me funny letters about killing “bunnies, and bambies” – because I'd watch Bambi when I was 4, which is a movie that made me sad when the mother died, at that age – and he remembered that and knew I remembered everything, too.  We just have the most interesting people in our family as a result of her character, support, and endless unconditional love. “Don't you know life is about giving” she'd say, if I ever needed anything and asked. The most important thing in life is love, it is the greatest gift and nothing surpasses it or is worth obsessing over or preventing that endowment. Mom & I love roses and she loves heart shapes, I'd buy her roses, and I put them all over her home when she passed.  I'd put a heart on notes to her before I went to bed, or to work, which she kept.  So, I would encourage everyone to buy the mothers they know roses.