Obituary of Dawn Ann Lacoff

It’s said that only the good die young and I never thought I could hate Billy Joel so much in my entire life.

Mom could have lived to 170 and it would have still been too young.

And of course, as her oldest son, I’m going to tell you what an incredibly good and strong and innocent and caring and loving wife and mother and grandmother and sister and friend and coworker she was.

 

But dont take my word for it.

 

The amount of people who have called, texted, stopped by, or sent gif’s in honor of Mom’s favorite pastime, has been overwhelmingly amazing.

 

And it’s no surprise.  I bet everyone of you who are sitting here, if you knew mom or even met her once or knew someone who met her, you would have ended up on her texting list.

 

Birthdays

 

Anniversaries

 

Babies

 

Your in-laws 

 

Neighbors

 

Friends

 

Your mailman’s cousin’s 4th anniversary of his apendectomy ‘oh please make sure he knows I’m thinking of him and hope he is feeling strong’

 

It didn’t matter.

 

Every morning for as long as I can remember there being text messages, I would get a good morning text from Mom.

 

And then when I got serious with Jackie, and then married her, it became a group text.

 

And she never needed or expected a response.

Just good morning, hope all is well, love you to infinity and beyond!

 

It was just her way of saying I’m here, I’ll always be here, and will always love you.

 

And I still wake up expecting those texts.  So I just say good morning Mom, love you to infinity and beyond, always.

 

So, as a mother of four, Dawnie was tough.

Like chase you around with a wooden spoon and wash your mouth out with soap tough.

But not really - she would chase, and we would run, and she would give us a tap every so often, but she could never bring herself to actually swing.  And even when that hook of hand soap 

would get us, she always helped us wash it out.

She could never do anything to bring us pain

 

I remember one time, this was before Scott was born. 

 

At Rockbottom, me Keith and Justin, and we were being little brats and ran off to find these little monster in the pocket toys and it was time to check out, so Mom tells us to come back and Keith just wouldn’t listen.

 

Typical

 

So me and Justin got the hair-brained idea to drag Keith across the entire floor of the store to get him to leave.

 

Mom was not happy.

 

Embarassed, exhausted and frustrated, we get back to the car and she grabs our hand held video game and throws it out the window.

 

Later that night, she goes back to try to find the game and fix it because, again, she could never hurt us.

 

Another time, she threw one of those monster in the pockets out the window only to tell Dad to turn around to look for it.

 

Gentle, caring, loving, Mom of four boys.

 

As you can tell, she adapted well to raising boys.  As fanatic about her Mets Jets and Rangers as you can get.

 

She painted her nails alternating blue and orange during baseball season, changing the colors each time they would lose - it happened a lot.

 

But she would still send texts or call us after every game. 

 

Happy recap or lovable loser lament.

 

It didn’t matter because it further bonded her to her boys and friends and siblings.

 

And regardless of how terrible or embarassing our teams were, she always stayed positive and hated it when we would get angry or say our team sucked.

 

Hey no talking like that!

 

Because she was also the most positive person you ever met in your life.

 

But not just with sports.

 

When we were growing up, it was always Sesame Street or Disney movies on at the house.  Mom loved Jim Hensen and Walt Disney as much as she loved Clark Gable and Keith Hernandez.

 

I swear growing up I was the only kid who could recite the Mets starting lineup that night and tell you what Big Bird’s neighbors were learning about that morning or which Disney animated movie was coming out that summer.

 

Certainly helped my street cred.

 

 I’ll tell you that Mom was so innocent and pure that she could sit and watch Kermit the frog or the Little Mermaid and sing along to all the words until the songs became engrained in my brain.  Which turns out is really helpful with my soon to be 3 year old daughter, Alexis.

 

Oh how she adores her grandchildren.

 

Daisy, Oliver, Alexis, Franco and Jamie.

 

The loves of her life.

 

I swear I thought we were going to lose her right in my dining room when I told her Jackie was pregnant - literally her heart stopped with so much joy and happiness.

 

She finally got the daughters she always wanted when we all married and then the grandkids she always deserved.

 

She would say when she retired from working at the BOCES school for special needs that her grandkids needed her now and her real job began.

 

How she loved just sitting with them upstairs in the play room with all the toys she hoarded from our childhood and kept for the day she could share them with the grandkids.

 

And guess what, they love them as much as we did.

 

And all because Grandma was with them playing.

 

Alexis what did you do with grandma today?

 

Played! 

 

So much joy and innocence should not be possible in one person but that was Mom

 

So now I say the world is a little less bright and a little less innocent.

 

But no less joyful because of the legacy she leaves us with.

 

Every day is a gift.  Remember to text or call or send up smoke signals to those you love.

Even if they don’t respond, just know they see your message and it may change their whole day for the better.

 

To infinity and beyond Mom, you are always with us.

 

 

 

 

 

In lieu of flowers donations may be made in Dawn's Memory:

American Cancer Society

https://www.cancer.org/