Dorothee Adele Didden Riederer, age 75, died November 13, 2019 at Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center in Rockville, Maryland, surrounded by her husband, children, caregivers, and friends. Dorothee taught eighth-grade English at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart for forty years. She believed that sincerely loving her students, “…how they looked, the way they talked, their personalities, all about them…,” and letting them know she loved them, was essential to being a good teacher. An alumna of Stone Ridge and Manhattanville College, she credited her Sacred Heart education with making her the person she was, intellectually and emotionally, for the rest of her life. During retirement, she volunteered with Hope for Honduran Children. Nicknamed “abuela” by the boys from Casa Noble, Dorothee was devoted to her “grandsons.”
People sometimes characterized Dorothee as sweet, but that word does not capture the fist-clenching discipline with which she battled a diagnosis of bronchiectasis, a lung disease similar to cystic fibrosis, that complicated her later years and eventually took her life. Yes, she would often say, with smiling eyes, how simple everything had become for her: “To love and be loved is the whole meaning of life. Everything else is just a small thing to be gotten past so one can get on with those two big things.”
Dorothee was the eldest of five children and the only daughter of Dorothee Mae Stoutenburgh and George A. Didden, Jr. The Didden family helped establish the National Capital Bank of Washington in 1889, which thrives to this day on Capitol Hill as Washington's oldest bank. Dorothee was the loving wife of Robert Theodore Riederer, Sr.; her children Anne Riederer (Tom Darlow) and Robert Theodore (Ted) Riederer, Jr. (Rose Devitt); her grandchildren Jasmine, Kai and Theo; and her brothers James and Donald Didden. She was preceded in death by her brothers George A. Didden, III and Richard Didden, and her dogs Luke, Cody, Billy, and Brady. Dorothee touched many lives and will be greatly missed.
A visitation will be held Friday, November 22 from 5-7 p.m. at Joseph Gawler’s Sons, Wisconsin Ave, NW, Washington, DC, dogs welcome. A memorial celebration will be held Sunday, November 24, from 4-6 p.m. (remarks at 4:30 p.m.) at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, 9101 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD. In lieu of flowers, please consider a small donation to the Hope for Honduran Children Foundation.
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Hope for Honduran Children Foundation
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