Dena Rae Smith

Dena was born in Denver and lived all her life within a ten mile radius of where she grew up. Her mom moved from Thornton to Westminster when Dena was 12 years old. Soon after, her family was involved in a bad car accident and Dena helped take care of her mother. She attended Ranum High School where she was voted most friendly by her classmates during her senior year. She graduated in 1974 and during her graduation trip tp Hawaii met the secretary to the director of the Denver Museum of Natural History, Bev Cotton. She returned and went to work at the museum. Two years later Dena and Steve met on a blind date set up by her aunt and Steve's mother. Six months later on July 3rd, 1976 they were married at Mother Cabrini Shrine. Melissa was born on May 19, 1978 and Dena gave up her position at the museum to be home with her baby. Stephanie was later born on June 14th, 1980. Dena was a wonderful mother and dedicated the next several years raising her daughters and making sure they were able to enjoy all the activities they wanted. She also babysat for several years and eventually was able to go to work for School District 50 as a teachers aide and then several office jobs over the years. All this time the family was able to travel on many road trips across the country. These were some of Dena's favorite times as she was able to sleep as soon as we pulled out of the driveway. And distance was never an issue since according to Dena, using her fingers to show us "it was only this far on the map". When her parents moved to Grand Lake, most weekends were spent in the mountains helping run the liquor and hardware store and eventually helping them build their cabin. Many great summers were spent enjoying watching her girls grow up and being with family and many friends. In 1994 Dena and Steve purchased the family auto repair business, Mountain View Garage. Dena helped Steve run the business, working in the office until Oct. 2005. Then while on a trip tp Spain they returned home to find out she had a stage 4 Glio Blastoma brain tumor. The next day she had emergency brain surgery and was told she only had four to six months to live. She proceeded to tell the doctors that she was going to beat the odds and that they were wrong. Dena returned home 4 days later and promptly started rearranging furniture and going through all the mail that was waiting after the two week trip. 2 weeks later her and Steve went hiking in the mountains. Dena then went through 6 weeks of daily radiation and 6 months of chemo. She never had any ill affects from either and with these treatments, a positive attitude a very healthy lifestyle and prayer she was on her way to proving the doctors wrong. The one thing that did change for Dena during this period was her overall outlook on life. She always had a great attitude but decided that this little episode shows how short life can be and proceeded to live life to the fullest. Her new motto was "It just doesn't matter". Dena's main concern now was to see her last grandchild born and to see them all grow up enough to remember her. She also wanted to reach her 50th birthday, and celebrate her 30th wedding anniversary which she did and then some. Dena loved nothing more than throwing or attending a good party with family and friends, traveling the world and checking off a new item on her bucket list. She even had the courage (with a little prodding from Steve) to build their dream house on the beach in Mexico. She finally agreed after Steve suggested we name it Casa Dena. During these years there were a couple small setbacks, but each time, Dena beat the odds and kept her promise of proving the doctors wrong. This past October, the odds finally caught up with her. Dena's tumor had reoccured and was so aggressive she was unable to fight the growth anymore. On October 17th, she suffered several massive seizures and was hospitalized for a week. She was able to come home and surprised everyone by showing signs of promise and improvement. But several weeks later her condition started to deteriorate and her condition worsened. She slowly started losing the ability to speak and suffered debilitating fatigue. We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving at home, but by the time Christmas came we moved in with our daughter Stephanie to make Dena more comfortable and to be closer to both daughters and their families. She loved having the grandkids around everyday and they loved having her there. Dena continued to believe that she was going to get better. She had such great support from family and many, many friends who visited several times a week. Each time someone would ask how are you doing, she would reply "Wonderful". This was her response right to the end when all she could do was move her lips. Dena's kindness, generosity and love of life is an inspiration to everone that knew her. She would never walk by someone without saying "Hi". In the end she had her husband, her two daughters and granddaughter by her side. Each year Dena helped raise money and awareness for the National Brain Tumor Foundation by walking with her team The Brainiacs, which we will continue in her honor.