In Memoriam of Dolores

It was about mid-April 2018, my phone rang that night. I picked up the phone, "Hey Dolores. Hang on a sec." 

I asked Hubby, "Norm! I got Dolores on the phone, could you get the kids to bed. I'll be on for a while, if that's okay." 

"Go right ahead, Jody." 

"Thanks." I go down to our basement, situate a punching bag across some wrestling mats, to rest against. It's going to be a long chat, I know.

"Okay, I'm here. How'd it go?"

Dolores begins, "Well, I drove Bob all over. You know he was a little late."  

I replied, "Oh no. I'm so sorry." 

She remarked, "He got lost getting to my apartment." 

"Oh okay. Sorry about that. I told him to let you know, so you wouldn't worry. Oh well. So, tell me how'd it go?"

"Yeah. So nice guy. I drove Bob around for hours." 

"He told me you drove him all over Paterson and surrounding areas for like 4 hours. Is that right?" 

"Oh yeah."

"He said you're a spitfire."

"A what?"

"A spitfire Dolores. He enjoyed the interview so much. So, tell me."

"Oh. Oh good."

"Yeah." I giggled.

"So Jody, I told him and showed him crime spots."

"No way!"

"Yeah..." Dolores goes into detail of the crimes, the spots. How they figured things out. She continues, "There was this one perp real smooth. He had us Jody. For the life of me. It was baffling. He slipped by us more than once. We knew we had him..." Dolores gets into even more heavy details. 

"Hang on a second Dolores." I call up to Hubby, 

"Closing basement door. Heavy talk Honey." "Okay." Hubby replied.

"Okay Dolores, continue."

"So Jody, this guy..."

After a half-hour I'm thinking, 'I'm going to have nightmares tonight'. But she needs to tell me about these three cases that frustrated her. I listened intently as it was quite fascinating that not only she could recall the infinitesimal details of these three horrendous cases. And they were absolutely horrendous. Dolores was doing this after driving Bob around for 4 hours, months before she was to turn age 90.

For about two hours that night we were on the phone. I realized not only what her case load had been like for decades. Yet summer was the most eventful, because that's when rape and other violent crimes are usually at their highest rate.

Years before back in 2005 she'd asked me, "How did I not get an ulcer? I'd be eating a roast beef sandwich and stepping over rape kits and bloodied clothing." She shook her head. I remarked, "Because you were a single Mom, trying to raise two daughters and you cared not only about their futures, but the community at hand you chose to protect and serve. And that is a hell of a lot." 

She'd added a number of times, "God Bless my mother. My parents helped me. You know Jody whenever I see a cardinal, which there have been a couple mornings I saw two together. I know that's my Mom and Dad." ---Jody-Lynn Reicher