On a warm Spring day in 2001 my engineer (Henry Greenblatt) and I were patiently waiting in Hillcrest, NY for permission to enter the yard from the Canadian Pacific yardmaster. All of a sudden we heard a docile voice from below the cab window of our locomotive calling to us. It was a slender woman, a straw hat atop of her head and a great big smile. She wanted to know what we were doing sitting there. Henry’s good natured response was “Come on up!” As she entered the locomotive cab you could see the excitement on her face, she introduced herself as Marly DeDio. From that day on a friendship was born between Marly and most of the train service employees. As we would head north or south we could count on a friendly wave from Marly. Or even better yet with advanced notice of our passing, a fresh baked gift of cookies could be hooped up.

Marly was a passionate gardener, she even inspired my love/hate relationship with it. Also Marly started my love of birds. Sometimes I would visit her and we’d sit on her back porch sipping tea and eating scones.

My friendship with Marly had become invaluable, she had become part of our family. My boys adored her as she did them. Marly even spent several Christmas holidays with us over the years. During the past year I had dropped out of touch with her and on this Christmas morning I stepped out to the mailbox to check for mail from the previous day. In there I found a letter from a mutual friend informing me that Marly had passed away recently. Our family is heartbroken! Apparently Marly had developed Parkinson’s disease and fallen breaking her neck.

Marly was a wonderful human being and our lives are that much richer for knowing her, Rest In Peace my friend. 😢