It was with great sadness that I learned of Dorothea’s recent passing. But as her youngest daughter Tricia said, “It was the best possible death — she had no pain, no tubes, no aloneness, no indignities.”Anointed with rose and lavender oils, wrapped in silk and flower petals from her precious garden, and surrounded by her loving family, this indomitable matriarch finally surrendered her 94 years on earth on Aug. 14.I am so pleased that I had the opportunity to include Dorothea in my book — she is as much a Cardiff pioneer as those very earliest settlers, Hector Mackinnon and Frank Cullen, and like them, she has truly left her mark.Through all of Cardiff’s inevitable changes, the spirit of Dorothea will continue to live on, from her marvelous mid-century house — so outrageous in 1950, so desirable in 2012 — to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of San Dieguito that she co-founded many decades ago, to the school that she and Milt constructed with their own children in mind and which has continued to safely house generations of Cardiff kids.She may be out of sight, but Dorothea will never be out of mind – a sentiment I find perfectly summed up in a line written by the late British politician, Enoch Powell: “If my ship sails from sight, it doesn’t mean my journey ends, it simply means the river bends.”
