Dorothy Demos Daye '52 - Holt, Missouri

Worn out from a day of computer work in a room with no windows, in an "everywhereville" looking crossroads outside of a Kansas City office park, I left the building wondering if I could awaken my extrovert self enough to be "on" for an evening with Dorothy - a friend I hadn't met - yet.  All indicators from our phone calls had been great - she didn't seem phased at all by my initial call - you know, the one from me, the Guilford alumni staff stranger to the alum who hasn't heard from Guilford (except maybe for phonathon calls) for, well, (in a '52 grads' case) decades?  Quite the contrary to being "phased" Dorothy started busily making plans for us to meet in Kansas City, which is about a 30 minute drive from Holt, where she and husband Richard live.  So, I was hopeful that even if I was tired, that we would have a good time eating dinner and talking "Guilford."  I felt bad because I hadn't been able to check in with her in the afternoon - and it got close to 5 p.m. when she called.  Would she still be able to meet, I wondered?  Heck yeah, Dorothy called and said she was already on her way (was my new 80 year old friend talking on her phone while driving?!).  Like a dear old friend, she checked on me once she arrived to the restaurant, making sure I didn't miss seeing it as I was trying to navigate a new city.  We arrived about the same time.  Now, the strangest thing happened when I saw Dorothy - she looked exactly the way I thought she would look, (only more beautiful).  I had to ask myself if I'd seen a photo of her, and then realized there was no way I'd seen a photo.  But there she was, and I knew it was her because I'd seen her before, in my mind!

We started talking right away - I had so many questions:  what was it like coming to Guilford from Ohio in the 40's?  what was her family like growing up?  did she know anything about Quakers?  the Air Force?  her family, her children, her husband, her career?  Sometimes, I just can't get the questions out fast enough and never, ever have enough time to find out the depth of the answers.  Maybe a new requirement for maintaining alumnus status needs to be to write your Guilford story!  Shouldn't Guilfordians expect a required paper again in their lives at least once?

Dorothy's life sounds so interesting, from her upbringing with a Greek father to her trek to a Quaker college in NC, to being recruited for Air Force meteorology while at Guilford, to joining the Air Force and meeting her husband, to traveling to Tokyo, living in Omaha, NB and more.  But even more importantly to me, was being with her and experiencing her tremendously positive and kind essence.  It took about a minute and a half to witness her openness, that she delights in life, and that she is a person with an open heart and mind.  She was instantly someone I wanted to know better and I also instantly regretted that I only had a short time to get to know her.  I secretly wanted to follow her home to Holt!  We talked and talked before remembering that one of the reasons we met in the particular part of town was to be near the Art Museum, which had evening hours that night (Dorothy researched all this for us by the way).  She was completely game for heading over to the museum.   "You need to see it" she said.  So she led the way and we sped about 3 blocks over, even though it was already 8:30.  It was a lovely, perfect evening in KC and I was so glad to have a chance to walk with Dorothy up to the gargantuan museum for a little more conversation time.  I love a woman who isn't worried about time or constraints, who just wants to enjoy the moment!

I love these gifts of  encounters that I am given through my work at Guilford.  Even while I've been writing this, a got a call from Charles Neelley, also class of '52, from Wyoming, just calling to tell me that he was thinking of me while he walked in the Big Horns today.  Just last evening with Dorothy, I mentioned his name and she remembered her former classmate.  I love the Guilford thread.  Love it.

So, I sit in Kansas City here in Mildred's Coffee shop.  Wanting to eavesdrop on all the surrounding tables - the tatooed man with the most outrageously cool glasses I've ever seen who seems for all the world to be having a very high level, hip conversation about event planning, restaurants and maybe music with a couple of other very cool looking men (not that I'm paying attention to that!), the other two men who seem as if they could be talking about philosophy, the young women who are undoubtedly planning some sort of urban, organic upstart philanthropic venture and more.  I'm in Kansas....KANSAS!  I love being 51 because I think that's why I still get really wowed by the fact that I could be in Greensboro one day and Kansas City the next - a whole new terrain, out here in "the middle," with all new people, and even a Guilfordian.