Norma Anita Spector Dease passed away peacefully at 89 years old at home in Pacific Grove, California, on Friday, March 11th. She was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to Abraham Marvin and Dinah Berg Spector. Norma was a devoted and loving wife to Bob, her husband of 68 years. She was a sweet, loving, caring, and devoted mother to her children, Barbara (and Randy Kloss) of Bellingham, WA, Bob Dease Jr of Caspar, CA, Melanie Dease of Mendocino, CA, and Cindy (and Jeff Brynan) of Beverly Hills, CA. She was proud of and dearly loved her four grandchildren, David, Danielle, Alexandru, and Jaime. She was survived by her beloved sister Bea, brother Harvey (and Naomi), nieces, nephews, relatives, and dear friends.
Norma met the “love of her life”, Bob, at an interview to be dance instructors in New York. She offered Bob a piece of gum which he turned down because he said, “I don’t chew gum”. They became successful dance instructors and won many dance awards, and opened their own dance studio. They married in Mount Vernon, New York in 1946 which began their life journey together. They moved to Minnesota where they had their four children and eventually moved to California in the early 1950’s. They opened Dale Dance Studio where their passion of dance continued.
Norma lived most of her life in the cities of Connecticut, New York, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Pacific Grove. She enjoyed creating and designing beautiful quilts which she shared with family and friends. She artistically decorated the homes that she and Bob remodeled during their long life together. In 1987, Norma and Bob moved to Pacific Grove where they retired. They remodeled and decorated their Victorian Home. Norma was a “natural” working as an Innkeeper at several local inns where she was loved by everyone whom she encountered. She loved flowers and gardening which brought her joy seeing her garden blossom. In addition, Norma enjoyed many years traveling overseas with Bob creating many wonderful memories together with family.
The family celebrated Norma's life at home honoring her many special gifts and especially her love and devotion to family and friends. While her loss is mourned, she will remain in all of our hearts, memories, and souls forever.
Her children would like to honor their mom with the following poem “God’s Garden”:
God’s Garden
A Chinese Proverb
God looked around his garden
And found an empty place,
He then looked down upon the earth
And saw your tired face.
He put his arms around you
And lifted you to rest.
God‘s garden must be beautiful
He always takes the best.
He knew that you were suffering
He knew you were in pain.
He knew that you would never
Get well on earth again.
He saw the road was getting rough
And the hills were hard to climb
So he closed your weary eyelids
And whispered, “Peace be thine”.
It broke our hearts to lose you
But you didn’t go alone
For part of us went with you.
The day God called you home.
Keep a Green Tree in your heart and
Perhaps a singing bird will come.
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