Diane was one of the first people I met upon moving to Waxahachie from Denison , just after the sixth grade.  We lived in the same neighborhood and would ride our bikes around, exploring new territories.  Diane was also a regular at First Methodist Church where my family joined.  If there was a church or MYF service happening, Diane was almost sure to be there.  I remember many occasions sitting in church and getting the giggles over little things and not being able to stop laughing.  That is probably why it was like reliving the past when at our 40 th high school reunion in October this happened to us again.  As we were dutifully bowing our heads at a somewhat lengthy invocation at the Ex-Students' Association luncheon, Diane suddenly said a rather loud "Amen" at a pause, just before the prayer continued.  As we were all wishing it had been the end, we all began an uncontrollable giggle fest again - even at ages 58 and 59.

The summer youth revivals, MYF meetings, and Sunday School classes with teacher Judy Williams were formative for us and certainly created a lasting bond.  At one point, Diane and I both felt a calling to missionary service.  It is clear to me now that she fulfilled this calling with her work with her students.  What an impact she has had on so many young people's lives.

As others have noted, Diane was a champion of the underdog.  Even at our last high school reunion, she made extra efforts to see everyone she thought might not be as comfortable there as she was and to make them feel welcome.  She lobbied for one particular person to win a prize being given at the reunion because she knew the person had never won a prize in high school.

Diane loved to nourish the body as well as the soul.  One summer during high school, several of us were in a summer school history class together.  Every day after class, we would go to someone's house and make sandwiches for lunch.  Since Diane lived right across from the school, we often went to her house where we always felt welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Allison.  Even Mike tolerated our presence without much complaint.  Diane taught us how to make tuna fish salad.  As with everything else in her life, she attacked even this mundane task in a way that made it special and convinced us all that it was a virtual feast. To this day, Diane's tuna salad with onions is one of my favorites.  I also remember the fabulous home made vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce Mrs. Allison would make in the summers.  Once when I visited Diane in Galveston after she was married, she made this for me and gave me the treasured recipe.  There is no dessert that can top this.

Slumber parties in high school were a big part of our "coming of age" experience.  The pizzas we made from a box mix, the running around the neighborhood late at night, the cruising down Ferris Avenue and stops at the Dairy Mart, the Ouija board séances and "8 Ball" predictions were all part of it.  (Did we ever really levitate anyone?)  Diane loved to have fun, but she was cautious and had a healthy respect for risk.  She loved cars and was especially excited when her dad would bring home a new car and she could drive us around in it.

In high school, Diane had the honor of being chosen several years in a row to work in the principal's office one period of the day.  She would go to each class to pick up the teachers' attendance slips for the period.  She loved this job and could probably have run the office herself even at that age.  It is so fitting that she became a teacher and ran a school herself.  She was a natural at this.

Diane and husband Mike and daughter Allison lived in Austin where we live for a short time after Mike graduated from medical school and came to Bergstrom Air Force Base.  Diane and Allison came to Amber's first birthday party.  They gave Amber a French Mother Goose book with the most wonderful illustrations.  I always loved that Allison majored in French at Rice and felt sure that the wonderful French nursery rhyme book must have been part of her life also or that Diane's enthusiasm for this book must have been contagious.  Diane loved and was so proud of Allison and Stephen.

When my sister-in-law was abducted in 1991 and her body finally located, Diane came to the funeral in Waxahachie and was there to help us in her generous way.  One of our daughters was scheduled to fly to Holland for a year's exchange program on the very day the funeral was set.  I was trying to decide how to juggle a short time frame between the funeral and the plane's departure.   Diane took over and insisted that she would take care of it for us and get her on the plane on time.  Our daughter had a wonderful bond with Diane from that day forward.  Diane knew just how to relate to her, comfort her and give her peace about going away for a year at the age of 15.  How could Diane have possibly shut the door in the face of a 15 year old who knocked on her door and asked to use her phone the night of November 22 nd ?

When I was having a particularly difficult time a few years ago, trying to figure out how to take care of a mother with dementia and worrying about a daughter and her upcoming marriage, Diane would call me regularly to give me pep talks.  She would reassure me that I was doing the right things and encourage me to let go of what I could not control.  She reminded me over and over that the wedding was not about me and to make it my daughter's special day even though I was not enthusiastic about it happening.  She came to California for the wedding and was there to support us and our daughter in a way that only Diane could be.  She was, once again, an angel in my life and in my daughter's life when we needed it the most.

It is obvious that Diane was enthusiastic and was a positive person, but she was no Pollyanna.  She was a realist and faced the hard knocks of life head on.  A couple of years ago, sitting in rocking chairs on the porch of the ranch waiting for others to arrive,  she shared how she specifically felt partly responsible for a major disappointment in her life.  She knew how to accept this, learn from it, and move on without a big guilt trip.  

One of my last memories of Diane is a wonderful moment of connection we shared in Cynthia's kitchen at the reunion "girls' party".  I was trying to heat some water in the microwave to make tea.  Diane was in the kitchen with me and opened the microwave door for me to put the water in.  As we were in the middle of a conversation, I was fumbling around trying to figure out how to turn the microwave on.  Diane deftly did it for me.  Then when the timer went off and I went over to retrieve the cup from the microwave, I couldn't figure out which button to punch to open the door  --  just like a sitcom where the old granny couldn't figure out how to work the new fangled contraption.  We both got so tickled that we laughed uncontrollably for several minutes and decided that, yes, maybe we could believe it was our 40 th high school reunion after all.

We'll always be grateful for the memories and love we shared with Diane and will try to live up to the high expectations she had of us and follow her legacy of meeting reality head on, being positive, and being the best friend anyone could ask for...

Pam Sanders Autrey