Beverly’s Death
Beverly's Death.
On May 24th at 2:00 AM Beverly died. The last few weeks were difficult for her and for us all. Swallowing became increasingly difficult, so a few days before the 24th, food and water were discontinued. While this seems cruel, it is far preferable over swallowing wrongly, resulting in material in the lungs. That would cause pneumonia, a much more painful way to die. In those last days she received low doses of morphine for comfort. She was always the wonderful Beverly, remaining calm, pleasant, and interactive through it all. We never saw her moan or cry out for any reason. She smiled and sometime said a word or two; when I said “I love you,” there were several times her response was “I love you.” She had almost constant visitors during the last few weeks, which she relished.
Lori, Erik, and I alternately stayed with her at night for many nights. Lori and I were there the last night, anticipating correctly that it would be the last night. We talked to her through the final moments as she passed calmly with no struggling movement and with no vocalizing of fear or discomfort, maybe as beautiful as death can be. We remember her through the many years that she brought joy, warmth, and laughs to many, many people so much of the time.
OBITUARY
Beverly A Dodd
AUGUST 14, 1941 – MAY 24, 2023
IN THE CARE OF
Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary
Beverly wants everyone to know that she will no longer be late to anything. As of May 24, 2023, she moved to a place without time. We will miss Beverly deeply, and we will miss waiting on her.
Beverly was the first child born into the second marriage of both parents. Her parents faced struggles that might be expected when raising 8 children (3 from earlier marriages and 5 from their own) while trying to make ends meet on a small farm in rural northeast Arkansas. With scarcity came conflict, sometimes screaming, yelling, hell-raising conflict. Early on Bev became the family peacemaker. One day while chopping weeds in the cotton fields, her brother and sister got into a battle so heated that her brother moved to attack her sister with a cotton hoe. Bev stepped in, and, as family legend has it, saved the lives of both. Year after year, time after time, she took on any problem, issue, or conflict.
Her childhood experiences in the cotton belt were good training for her ability to resolve any dispute. Professionally, this translated into becoming a devoted and caring nurse, whose attention and dedication to patient care were the hallmarks of her successful career, culminating in her role as Vice President of a home health care agency. Bev was known as the “compassionate terminator” in her executive role; she had a knack for understanding the to-be-fired employee so well that the termination meeting frequently ended with the fired individual thanking Bev for the opportunity to start anew, elsewhere, with redirected career goals.
Bev had a rare ability to turn her own pain and loss into strength and support for others and taught us to always bring joy to moments of adversity. At the age of three, she lost sight in her left eye, when a stray piece of metal flew into her eye from her father cutting wire with an ax. Perhaps the extra attention her father gave her after the accident taught her that tragedies can bring good things. In the early 1980s, Bev was in a car accident that totaled the family’s Dodge Omni. When the EMTs arrived on the scene, one of them immediately focused on examining Bev’s left eye. Bev took advantage of the childhood injury that left her without a pupil, exclaiming with feigned anxiety, “Is there something wrong with my eye?” The concerned tech stepped away to find his superior to examine further. After letting the tensions build for another minute or so, she confessed, and they all had a good laugh. She always found ways to inject humor and joy into any situation, and you could count on her to show up to any function, even formal events, in ridiculous costumes to remind us all not to take ourselves too seriously. She once dressed up as a potato to recruit business from a new orthopedic surgeon from Idaho, and it worked!
Bev was born with gift of “the ear,” and the ability to play any music she heard. Her parents recognized the gift early and bought a beat-up pump organ, placing it on the front porch facing the Cotton Belt Railroad. Before she was five years old, she was picking out tunes she heard on the radio. She couldn't reach the pump pedals, so her two older half-sisters pumped for her. Her parents exchanged labor for piano lessons, but her rigid instructor reprimanded her for embellishing with extra notes. As a result, she only had two lessons, but Bev kept playing what she heard. It worked so well that she went on television in her early teens as part of a Memphis talent contest. She loved challenging rhythms; her favorite music was rockabilly/boogie-woogie, although there was not a song she couldn’t play. A favorite party trick was playing piano backwards, sitting on the ground with her lanky arms crisscrossed back to the piano. She even continued this trick deep into her diagnosis, entertaining residents in her memory care facility. And she could always sing harmonies to songs by professional musical entertainers there.
The greatest beneficiaries of Bev’s many gifts were her husband, David, and her children Erik and Lori. She created a home full of music, love, and fun. From her spooky haunted house on Halloween, which brought people from all over the Salt Lake Valley, to her musical might at holidays, birthday parties, and campfire circles, she made people feel good and the music sound better.
She never made quick judgements about anyone and taught us to be open to the positive qualities of all. Anyone she met quickly became a friend. She was a kind, compassionate, creative, intelligent, and a loving wife, mother, and friend.
She was preceded in death by her parents Olive and Andrew, sisters Pat, Lyda, and Vivian, and brother Ronnie. She is survived by her husband David, children Erik (spouse Audrey) and Lori (spouse Trevor) and 4 grandchildren, Madeline, Owen, Calvin and Lulu, and three siblings, Larry, Wray, and Gale.
We are grateful for the care and tenderness of her physician, Dr. Fehlauer, and the incredible staff at the Auberge and the Abbington, who supported Beverly and her family through her long battle with Alzheimer’s.
A funeral service will be held at the Holladay United Church of Christ in early July. No flowers. Please send donations to Lynden Legacy Foundation (https://lyndenlegacy.com), dedicated to dementia caregiving, or to any Alzheimer’s organization.