The Strawberry Sampler

A sad announcement from all of us at The Strawberry Sampler

As most of y'all know, for the past year our friend & coworker Lise has been battling leukemia. She was going thru chemo AGAIN the first couple weeks of December, working toward getting a bone marrow transplant.

Unfortunately, this last round of chemo really knocked her for a loop. If you have gone thru chemo ~ either yourself or with a family member or close friend ~ you know that one of the many brutal side effects is that your immune system is taken down to nothing. This is what happened to Lise. She ended up getting an infection and because of her low blood count she was unable to fight off the infection. The infection became systemic & on Christmas Eve morning she passed away.

All of us here at TSS are still trying to wrap our heads & hearts around this heartbreaking turn. She remained positive & continued fighting until she simply couldn't fight any longer. One thing we know for sure...when she got to Heaven she was greeted by several German Shepherds who were ecstatic to see her (as well as many other dogs who had come to love her thru classes at Clover Dog Training ~ including 2 of mine!). We also are still wrapping our hearts around her dad, sister & brother. I was talking with her dad last week & telling him to give Ivy lots of pets from us & that we were missing Ivy here at the shop. He was saying how nice it is having Ivy around because she's such a good pup. I know that he has become buddies with Ivy ~ they go on car rides & she always walks up with him to take or retrieve the trash barrels. We know Ivy girl is gonna be missing her momma, but we know that Lise's dad will love her up lots.

Here at the shop, we are missing her terribly. Her pictures of her pups are still all around her framing area. The stuffed pink bunny that she would talk to when she was really crazed (yep, she talked to the bunny...it was disturbing ~ and hilarious!) is still waiting for the next conversation. Her stuffed snowman that she kept simply to taunt me (with a sign that says "Think Snow") sits on the shelf facing me (I occasionally stick my tongue out at it as I walk by!). This morning Molly heard someone rattling the handle on the back door ~ something Lise had been doing the last few months when she stopped by with things to drop off (and always forgot her key!). When Molly looked out, no one was there.

Lise was so important to so many folks ~ not just those of us here at the shop! In her "spare time" (HA!), she also was the baker at the John Chad House, which is part of the Chadds Ford Historical Society. From May thru late September, she baked bread in the original beehive oven at the Chad House. She also taught groups of students on field trips for many years. If you ever had the good fortune to buy any of the beehive oven bread there, that was all Lise! Around here, we each had our favorite ~ from Cinnamon Dot to Herbie Onion to classic French...it was sooooo good!

She also started her own dog-training business along with her friend Michele. Several of my dogs have graduated ~ to a greater or lesser extent ~ from class! My girl Casee LOVED going to dog class. She was AMAZING! At class. When we got home, she just would look at me like I was speaking a foreign language! Now Charlee on the other hand, stunk at class. She would occasionally do something correctly, but usually by accident. She graduated...but most likely because she was one of only 2 dogs to show up for graduation (the weather was bad...but we lived close by!). One night Lise says, "we're gonna pull out the big guns ~ the treats that EVERY dog loves!". Evidently, Charlee does not love liverwurst & would not do anything she was supposed to do!! As usual, Lise surmised that it was not dog error, but in fact handler error (ie, ME) that was to blame! She absolutely loved all dogs, but her personal pups were German Shepherds. When I moved back to PA, she had a Shepherd named Jessie. Now I had lived next door to a German Shepherd for 5 years growing up. Unfortunately, his owners treated him terribly & consequently he was very mean & aggressive. That was my only close up experience with Shepherds up to that point. Well, Jessie was the exact opposite. She was calm, quiet (her bark was more like a little cough or something). Jessie was also a giant fluff ball ~ lots & lots of hair ~ made her look way bigger than she actually was. One night I was working late at the shop in Olde Ridge Village. I was there by myself, but it wasn't terribly late ~ just dark out. All the sudden, I had this feeling like I wasn't alone. I glanced to my right & there was Jessie. Somehow she had walked almost all the way around me before I saw her. I SCREAMED! She just looked at me like I was nuts! From then on, she was referred to as the Stealth Shepherd! Hilariously, Lise would do the same thing! She walked up behind me at the grocery store one time (actually several times!) & scared me to death! She would do it at the shop too! And she would always say "How do you not notice a 6 foot tall not small woman standing right there?".

I have tried to sit & write this note several times over the holiday weekend & was extremely unsuccessful. We miss her so much & yet we are grateful she isn't fighting anymore. So very many of y'all have asked how she's doing, have let us know you're thinking of her, praying for her. Whenever I talked with her I let her know that so many folks were thinking of her & lifting her up. And she wanted me to let YOU know how much that meant to her ~ she said it really made such a difference in her life. As we go forward without her, we know she'll be here ~ trying to get in the back door, hovering over my shoulder as I screw up the matcutter, laughing when it starts snowing & I start complaining. We hope you will be patient with us these next few weeks as we each & all work to adjust to our new normal. We will continue to offer framing as we move forward.

I will have a "normal" newsletter soon ~ it was one of the things I intended to do over Christmas weekend, but my heart could not manage it.

Hugs & stitches ~

Beth & all the girls at TSS