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Memories of Golde Dicks Markham (1996) Golde Markham Dicks 104/125

take. She taught me how to keep a secret. Yes, over the years my Gee Gee has taught me

many things, but most of all, through loving me, she’s taught me how to love. All my friends
loved my Gee Gee, and1 they all wished that they had her for their own.
Well, I’ve told you a little about my Gee Gee, now I’d like to tell you about Golde
Dicks Markham.

Golde was just as rare as gold. I promise you there’s not been another like her nor will
there ever be. You’ve heard the worn out saying that, “when God made her, He broke the
mold.” Well, with Golde there never was a mold ... because she was handmade. Golde
loved fresh mangoes and grapefruit. She loved to travel. She loved fried catfish. And she

loved flowers. Golde loved her little bird, Sweetie Pie. But most of all, she loved her daugh­
ter, and her daughter loved her, too.
People knew Golde as kind and generous. But at the same time they knew to watch
out if they ever crossed her. I remember being glad as a very young boy that I was not one of

those big grasshoppers she found in her flowers. They got their heads tom off real quick.
Some might say that Golde was independent... and they’d be right. If she had lived to be
150 years old, there would still be a handful of things that she would do for herself, because

that’s the way she was, and that’s the way she was raised. My mother told me not too long
ago that Gee Gee had come to her and said that she was going to give over her car keys for
her 88th birthday. And as she was walking away, she'turned and said to my mother, “That
doesn’t mean I can’t take ’em back whenever I please!”

Golde knew how to work hard, too. My mother was telling me that just before she
went into the hospital, that she had worked my mother into the ground helping to landscape
their new home and plant her new garden. For years now she’s worked harder than it was
possible for any lady of her age. Andi it usually happens when she’s helping someone else.

Golde had a sense of humor like few others. I used to tell people that she was the only
87-year-old teen-ager I knew. And she even had the nurses in ICU cracking up even during
her last few days in the hospital.
But Golde also knew how to beat back adversity like nobody else I’ve ever known.

She fought her way through so many surgeries and procedures that I think even my mother
has lost count how many there were. She has the battle scars all over her body to prove it.

I’ve thought that we were going to lose her many times in the last 15 years but we didn’t.
God has been gracious to us, and to her.
These past few weeks she’s fought a difficult battle. I am sorry to say that I have
followed most of it from the other side of the world, but many of you have been right here

with her, urging and praying her on. Myself and her family are grateful to you. God sustained
us all during some very difficult days and nights and we are thankful.

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