Delos "Dee" Lander

Fred and I are so happy to be here today to celebrate Dee’s life with you. And we bring so many with us, from Canada to New England to New Jersey to Florida and to the place beyond our knowing. Growing up in Ridgewood outside big New York City, was a great small town. The Landers moved into our neighborhood a couple of years after us in the early 70’s into the house on the corner across from the high school and the only one with a pool! The house was also across the street from the Mastin’s and the sledding hill, and next to Mrs. Pope, my best friend’s aunt, and Ashley and Lindsey’s great aunt! I can’t recall how our families first met – it might have been when the crew of 30 or so neighborhood kids of all ages showed up at the new people’s door, or by my Dad, Sam, then the Assistant Superintendent of schools who wanted to greet a new family with 4 new students, or when my sister Jill discovered Engrid was in her 6th grade class, or more likely instigated by my mother Barbara who learned Dee carried more than a passing resemblance to her screen idol, Paul Newman. I’m just glad it did because we got to take care of the pool when you all came out here during the summer. However it began, our families shared lots of love and friendship with Dee, Lois, Dee Junior, Engrid, John and Sarah ever since. So we all share in your grief and are with you in thoughts and prayer. The sadness of grief is lessened by the ability to reach back to these memories that make us smile and laugh. We have a vast collection from our long friendship with the Landers and especially Dee as master host. He always, greeted us warmly with that iconic, handsome face and warm smile. He was kind, humorous, always happy to see us. This was a good thing because we were at the Landers a lot – we would gather around the family room TV to watch Wimbleton and the US open with Chrissy Everett, John McEnroe,Bijorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and Billie Jean King. There were neighborhood block parties, thanksgiving day football and of course pool parties and ping pong matches in the barn. We remember how well Dee and Dee Junior played – always winning and always with lots of fun. Dad never remembers winning a match. These family gatherings of course always included all kinds of beer we’d never heard of, lots of white wine (Barbara and Lois’s favourite), bean mess, dump cake, lobster and Lois’s famous garlic bread! My Dad sends wonderful memories of Lois’ friendship with my mom, bonding over a shared love of “antiques” which they later combined, at the age of 40, with jogging, and were the talk of the neighborhood. It continued every morning for more than 20 years, In all kinds of weather, even after my mom moved to the town next door with her second husband. Dee and Lois stood up for Mom and Fred at their wedding. And decades later, after Dee’s stroke, drove from Ohio to New Jersey just for 1 day, to say goodbye to my mom which is what she was waiting for to let go. These milestones in life that we share will live on in our hearts and minds forever – these and others like cheering on the “then” kids in sports like football, tennis and cross country or celebrating graduations, weddings, grandchildren and also the sad times like today. True friendship lasts forever and we feel blessed to to call Dee and all of the Landers our forever friends. We love you, Sam Stewart Carrie Stewart Ditmars Jill Stewart Roote