On August 12, 1941, at 6:17 AM, a glorious rainbow shined like a spectacular painting across the royal blue sky in Manhattan, Kansas, and stayed there until 2:07 AM on June 4, 2020. That glorious rainbow would everything spread out until it covered the entire earth. This world got infinitely brighter because of the endless vessel of eternal love that had just entered into it. Donna Sue Deibler was born in Manhattan, Kansas, to Donald Deibler and Elma Deibler. Her father named her Donna to reflect his own name, Don. He would go on to call her Junior.
He always wanted a girl, and God had just provided one for him. Little did he know that his wife, Elma, had just give birth to angel sent directly down to them from Heaven. The world was yet to know of this new, little angel just born, but it would soon find out that had just gotten brighter because this brilliant light was already shining a blazing trail through the darkness.
Even in her early days, Donna Deibler was an incomparable trailblazer. Her mother had a difficult time keeping track of her. She always had her bright, brown eyes focused on her surroundings and was trying to learn about this new world she had entered and was about to transform. Her mother saw this amazing curiosity and knew right away that she had a special child on her hands.
Her father also knew it. She was forever the apple of her parents’ eyes. His face always glowed knowing that his first child was extraordinary. He could see her little hands grabbing everything that she could and examining it with fascinating curiosity. The first thing that interested her was her rattler. She would shake it and wonder why it rattled. “What was making that extraordinary noise?” she would already ask herself in her already vibrant mind. While her mother was sitting in Donna’s nursery, her mother would watch her angelic daughter play with her gold-painted rattle made from maple wood and finished with all-natural, organic beeswax and flaxseed oil. and wonder at her deepening curiosity about the mysteries of this world.
Donna’s life-filled eyes zoomed in on this fascinating toy with intense curiosity. This keepsake would be a precursor to how Donna would experience and examine and look at the world around her. She would continue to live with that same intense inquisitiveness. Donna would put the rattle in her mouth to see how it tasted. She would touch it and play with it to see how it felt and moved. She would gaze up into Elma’s eyes in wonderment about this toy. Her eyes would be asking, “What is this, and what makes it work?”
Her mother would simply pat her on her beautiful, brown-haired head and nod her head, as if to say, “I am glad you love this precious plaything that I made for you!” Already, Donna had learned to appreciate what others had done for her. She would nod her head up and down and mother as if to reply to her, “Thank you, Mama, for making me this splendid toy! I love it! I will cherish it forever.” Little did her mother know that she would cherish everything in her life with every fiber of her heart, being, spirit, and soul!
Her father, meanwhile, though he always wanted a girl, thought that she would be interested in male activities. His angel was going to be a Renaissance Woman, and he was right! He wanted her to enjoy wrestling and auto racing. He just knew that she would one day become the Checker Champion of the World! He wanted her to enjoy everything that this world had to offer. She did exactly that from the very beginning.
Everything that Donna did, she did it with all-out effort. No waking moment was ever wasted in her entire life. Don would later regret teaching her to play checkers because she would eventually come to beat him. No one had ever achieved that feat before she did it, and no one did it after that. One thing that he would never regret, however, was having, along with his wife, Elma, the most special daughter who ever lived!
Donna loved animals almost more than life itself. Her first pet was a cat named Midnight. She loved Midnight as if she was a human being, as if she were own child. To her, Midnight was everything. She lit up her soul like a bright, summer day glowing with infinite sunshine. She would have a bowl of milk and a big bowl of Kibbles and Bits sitting out for her beloved kitten every night. She would never miss a night. She would constantly pet Midnight’s sleek, jet black fur and go to sleep at night listening to her loud, loving purr flowing into and through her ears.
Midnight, as she slept in Donna’s bed every night, would always give her love taps with her tiny paws and massage her neck because her new owner would rain so much delightful love down upon her at every opportunity that she had. That was exact same type of love that she had for every pet that she ever had and for every human being that she ever had contact with. Donna blessed Midnight, and Midnight blessed her. Neither one of them ever took for granted the love that they shared for each other. Midnight was the happiest cat on earth because of Donna’s endless love.
When she was six years old, Donna was blessed with a sister. Carolyn Deibler instantly became the newest love her life, the little baby who had been put into her life’s journey, the new human being who had been put into her loving care. She continued to love Midnight while adding a new love into her life’s rich path.
She knew immediately that she was going to be her new, little sister’s protector and keeper. She was also loving her parents and appreciating everything that they had done for her and were continuing to do for her and would always do for her. She always appreciated the love that her parents had for her. Never one time did she ever slough it off in any way, shape, or form. She even loved people who she never knew or who did not love her. She consistently poured love into every living being in the world until it overflowed.
Her childhood shaped the way she would live for the rest of her life. She continued to be the apple of not only her parents’ eyes, but she became the apple of her sister’s eye. She would help her get on the bus to go to school. She would cook her meals when her mother was not able to do so. She taught her how to sew. She let her play with her dolls. She showed her how her father built his trackless trains. She taught her how to plant and water flowers. She showed her how to grow up and live a full life, even when they were both still fairly young.
In grade school, Donna’s love continued to grow and bloom. She touched every heart that she came into contact with. Donna lived her life with a gusto and made sure that everybody was loved and taken care of. This love extended as the world around her grew. She deeply touched all of her classmates.
She would stay after school and help strangers with their homework. She would bring birthday cakes to classmates with birthdays. Her mother would teach her how to make the cake, and she would take them to school. Later, she would make the cakes herself. Her favorite type of cake to make was red velvet with vanilla icing. Her cooking skills were already blossoming like a garden full of edible roses!
Her life, like her cooking, continued to bloom and covered every inch of her life when she entered high school at Manhattan High. It was there that her prosperous grade-school years manifested themselves into a proliferation of enormous successes in her next level of education. She also worked at the library at Kansas State University. That was an extremely rewarding venture for her.
She graduated from Manhattan High School in 1959. She finished with a 3.25 Grade Point Average in the classroom but with a 4.0 in the Love Department. The number of classmates who she touched with love is still, to this very day, incalculable. She helped students with their homework, would bring them lunch while they were studying, even rented out her childhood home’s room to Kansas State University students. Everybody loved Donna Deibler.
From 1960 to 1964, she attended Kansas State University. She continued to work in the library. She also got involved in her dad’s Trackless Train business. She graduated from Kansas State in December of 1964. She got a B.A. in English.
She lived in Manhattan, helping her parents and sister with their lives until the Autumn of 1965, when she moved to Denver. After staying in Denver for a few years, she moved to Minneapolis. In 1967, she moved to Kansas City, Missouri. She started working for the United States Department of Labor in December of 1967. Her primary location was in downtown Kansas City, in an office in the building that housed the Missouri State Division of Employment Services. It was then and there that she met her beloved soul mate, James Milton Schneck, who she was married to for 52 years. They wedded on May 14, 1968. They stayed together until the day she passed away. She worked at the Missouri State Division of Employment until 1999.
After the marriage, Donna and James Schneck moved to Raytown, Missouri. Her sister, Carolyn, married and had two children. Her father, Donald Deibler, died of a heart attack in February of 1975. On January 25, 1976, her only child, Todd Schneck, was born at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. She showered her family with infinite love every second of every day.
Her sister married Bob Miller. Her mother, Elma, moved from Manhattan, Kansas, to North Kansas City, Missouri, in 1993. Donna spent almost every day with her mother now that she was closer to her own family. In 1985, she got her second cat, Caesar. She treated him just as had treated Midnight, with an unparalleled appreciation and devotion. That was her nature. She was unable to act any other way.
Her husband, James, went to work for the Internal Revenue Service. He retired from there in 1998. She saw her son, Todd, all the way through school, helping him and watching after him like a true guardian angel. After Caesar died in 1997, she adopted her third cat, a rescue named Larry. She loved him more than anything else in this world, just like she loved everything else in her life. Again, that was her nature. It was impossible for her not to love everyone and everything!
On January 9, 2008, her mother, Elma Deibler, passed away in North Kansas City, Missouri. She delivered a moving eulogy to her beloved mother at her memorial service on Easter Sunday in 2008. She continued to love her husband and son and cat more than life itself. Donna Schneck handled herself with grace and elegance every day of her nearly 79 years of life. Even in the face of death, she was stoic, strong, and peaceful.
She lost her third cat, Larry, on July 31, 2016. His urn, sitting next to her mother’s urn, still sits on the mantel in her home in Raytown, Missouri. She adopted her fourth beloved cat, Barney Griffith Schneck, in September of 2016. She showered him with love along with everybody else who graced her loving, glowing presence.
On June 2, 2020, Donna Sue Deibler, entered the Kansas City Hospice House. She passed away with strength and dignity and entered Heaven at 2:07 AM on June 4, 2020. A thunder and lightning storm erupted down here on earth immediately after her ascension into the next life. God was alerting everyone that a loving angel had just joined His kingdom’s heavenly ranks. She was the most gorgeous, beautiful, loving, graceful woman who ever lived. God made a great one when He made Donna Sue Schneck. She gave of herself even when she did not want to or was too tired to do so. Her family was everything to her.
I can feel her presence right now as I write this. That is because she has a better view of me. Her view from Heaven is clearer, and she is able to direct my steps with more clarity. I feel her comforting blanket of peaceful tranquility with me every second of every day. Donna Schneck was infinitely beautiful both inside and out, through and through, from the very top of her head to the very bottom of her feet.
She had a soul made of solid gold, shining and lighting up this world with unparalleled grace. God made her special! She passed away exactly as she lived, in perfect peace. Her spirit lives on in her husband James and son Todd and cat Barney forever. Her beloved spirit is also looking down and watching and protecting her entire extended family, including her sister, nephews, nieces, cousins, aunts, uncles, and everyone else in the world who she loved with all of her gigantic heart.
Her brown eyes were deep wells of wisdom. She did not have to say a word to touch someone’s soul. She was strong and stoic, always letting you know how she felt. She always wanted the best for everybody. She wanted the world to be healed. Her love spilled out of an overflowing cup. That love will stay with me and all of her loved ones forever and ever!
They will all reunite with her in Heaven one day and feel that special love that only she could give touch their souls once again. She will always be the best thing that ever happened to them. She will always be the best thing in my life. There would be no hope for me with out her. There is no doubt in my mind that, without her, both her loved ones and me, her most beloved son and only child, would have been lost and alone.
She filled their hearts and my heart with a love that only she could have given to us all. She loved every last person to the very end. She passed away with never-ending peace coursing and running through her rich, rich soul. She entered Heaven with everlasting peace and tranquility and joined the other angels in Heaven with boundless joy and happiness.
I did not realize the gift from God that Donna Sue Schneck, my mother, truly was. Her spirit lives inside of me forever now, however. We are closer now than ever because we have soul to soul contact. She continues to be a blessing not only to me but to everyone she knew and touched. I thank God every day for the 44 years I got to spend with her down here on earth.
As I write this, a gentle, soothing has just ended, and an enormous rainbow has covered the entire sky. She will always be with us! Thank you for giving every ounce of your loving soul and heart and spirit to me every single second of every single day! I love you, Mom! We all can feel your love bursting throughout our souls more than ever now that you are protecting us from your glorious perch up in Heaven! Your spirit lives on inside my heart and will continue to help me to grow and learn and become the son that deserves your precious love! You will live on and on in love and peace Mom! Your splendid beauty will always grace this world!
Your greatest gift to me, which I can already feel, is all of the wonderful, peace-giving memories. Whenever the storms of life rage and wear me down, all I have to do is think about you, and I feel better. A huge rises to my face, and my heart gets healed every time your thoughts float through my soul! Thank you for an incredible life and for giving me the gift of the best mother any son could ever ask for! Your loving spirit will be keeping me company for the rest of my days here on earth and then on into the eternal setting of Heaven!
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