Thanks for Giving - My Friend Doreen

Some times friends come and go with the winds and some remain as constant as the tide. My friend Doreen Kutschke blew in to my life in 2004 as Hurricane Charley hit the east coast while I was living in Ormond Beach, FL. Doreen came to Florida from Germany as an Au Pair exchange.  Doreen loved nightclubs and we had a habit of attending a local nightclub, which I typically avoided.  I fed off her energy and enthusiasm for celebrating life, and went anyway.  Doreen was that kind of friend. One that grabs the “bull by the horns” or in my case a “friend by the hand” to the dance floor to celebrate our youth, health, and most of all life!

Doreen left Florida a few months later and I haven’t seen her in person since those final months of 2004.  Thanks to the launch of online social media in the following years we have remained in touch. Eight years later and not much has changed with Doreen's approach to life. However, she may dance to health with a little more heart and emotion these days.  I feel her compassionate character and lust for life as it transcends through today all the way from her homeland of Germany to my home state of Georgia. I just received a package from her containing some German Chocolate, postcard and her book The Fight With Cancer or Do We Have The Food We Need? 

You may ask, what does all this have to do with the theme of this blog? Thrift is derived from "to thrive". Doreen's book is about her thrive to live after being diagnosed with cancer. She is yet another walking, talking example of A Thrift Life. Doreen’s book chronicles her change in eating habits and outlook that defeated a diagnosis with cancer 2 years prior. On this holiday of Thanksgiving we reflect on our lives and give thanks to those friends and family that impacted our lives in some way or another. Doreen reminds me that it doesn’t always take a lot of time for someone to make a lasting impression and simple, yet thoughtful gifts of compassion can help the spirit of a friend last forever. 

Doreen in Ormond Beach, FL after Hurricane Charley in August, 2004