Dinah Gail Stafford

Dinah lived outside the construct of time. Yesterday was intended to be forgotten and tomorrow doesn’t exist. Now is all that has ever been. She lived on this earth for seventy years, rare for a person with Prader-Willi syndrome. What makes Dinah an eternal rarity is that she has been and always will be an Angel of God.

On a dark night in Hobart, Oklahoma, Dinah and her mother, Loretta, survived an impossible birth. Their doctors assumed neither would live past January 24, 1955. As on many other occasions in both their lives, each shocked the medical world’s predictions.

In 1960, Finis and Loretta moved their young family to Phoenix, Arizona. There they found the first of many day programs that would accommodate children with special needs. By the age of fourteen, Dinah would begin working in adult day programs. At the age of twenty-six, Dinah would graduate from living at home into a series of full-time group homes. Finding the right fit was always difficult.

But in 1998, Dinah was able to move to Tucson, a transition that would transform her life. She would meet two women who would become lifetime friends: Dr Jeanne Carrigan, a Catholic nun and the director of Art Works, and Jo Sherrill, Dinah’s beloved caregiver.

Art Works provided the opportunity for Dinah to find her voice as an artist. She was Mother Superior in The Sound of Music. She created ceramics, including The Rooster. And she became a painter, most famously for her piece, Blue Jesus.

Jo worked for PPEP (Portable, Practical Education Programs) under which Encompass and their CEO, Dr Gina Judy, provided living resources for adults with development disabilities. Under PPEP’s twenty-four-hour care, Dinah would be able to live in her own apartment. Jo would be with Dinah for over twenty years, that in itself is more than rare. Beyond the caregiver-client relationship their friendship would shape both of their lives.

The most powerful word in Dinah’s lexicon is Love. Dinah’s smile invited you into her presence where you would begin to learn the meaning of living a life of Love. Her hugs crushed the old way of being out of you, creating space for her Love to fill you. Her silence challenged you to think outside of your own confines looking for another perspective of Love. Her cryptic words forced you to re-imagine Love. And her prayers pressed God into action, calling the divine to Love you on Dinah’s behalf. Her Love has always been present in the cosmos from the beginning of creation. As an Angel of God, she came to profess to the world the way of Love. And now, for those of us who have been transmuted by her Love, we will continue her message: Love is for all.

Some of those messengers include:

Finis (my daddy), Loretta (my momma no more), Dorothy (my daddy’s honey), Gil (bother, that’s not a typo) Cathy (my Sissy). Neil (Nia, Bother and Sissy’s boy) and Jennifer (Nia’s honey), their sons Cole and Zane (my boys), Alicia (Esika, Bother and Sissy’s girl) and Phil (Esika’s honey), their children Jared, Bryce, and Avery. Dinah’s in-laws, nephews, nieces, and their children. And Dinah’s many cousins.

For those interested in a full story about Dinah’s life, you can read Dinah’s Story: A Child with Prader-Willi Syndrome by Loretta Stafford; a mother’s story, which will take you through the challenges of parenting a neurodivergent child. And Meditations on Blue Jesus: Listening to the Disabled God by Gil Stafford, whose book focuses on Dinah’s art (including pictures) as her voice and the means of telling her own story.

Instead of flowers, you might consider a donation in Dinah’s name to either:

Prader-Willi Association USA

Special Olympics

A memorial service for Dinah will be held Sunday, March 23, 2025 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM at Phoenix Memorial Park and Mortuary, 200 West Beardsley Road, Phoenix, AZ 85027.