Manatee loses a woman with a big heart for the community

The Rev. Gerrit Besteman of Bradenton Christian Reformed Church paid a visit on Thursday afternoon to a home filled with laughter, love and activity and absent any gloom at all on Fordham Place in Bayshore Gardens.

Besteman walked through the living room where five of Ed and Joanne Dick’s eight adopted children, all grown up now, were going through old newspaper clippings and magazine articles about Joanne Dick in order to make a slide show.

In the kitchen were more family members, nibbling on pizza and grapes.

Finally, Besteman entered the family room where he found Ed Dick wearing a bright orange University of Miami jersey and holding up as well as could be expected.

Besteman was visiting because at 7 p.m. Monday he has to lead a memorial service at his church for Joanne Dick, an extraordinary Manatee County leader and community volunteer, who died of cancer in her Fordham Place home Wednesday.

Her home was exactly as Joanne Dick would have wanted it the day after her death — a joyful party atmosphere for someone who is now with the same Jesus she talked about so much and believed in, Besteman said.

“Joanne was the kindest, loveliest and Godliest woman that I know,” Besteman said.

Ed Dick, Joanne’s husband of 64 years, told Besteman he didn’t deserve having an angel for a wife.

“I don’t know how she put up with me,” Ed Dick said.

“I don’t know either,” Besteman replied with a grin.

A legacy left for six living children

Joanne Dick was an elder in the Presbyterian church and President of the Manatee County branch of the American Heart Association.

She was one of the founders of the South County Library and Guardian Angels of S.W. Florida and Refugee, Inc., which brought roughly 700 people to Manatee and Sarasota from war-torn parts of the world in the 1970s.

But most of all, she was always a sweet wife to Ed, who admits he can be rather brash at times.

“Mom was subservient to her husband, as the Bible says a wife should be,” daughter Cristine Civil said. “But in private she would speak her mind to him.”

Five of the eight children that Ed and Joanne Dick adopted over the course of their 64-year marriage were busy at the home Thursday gathering material for Joanne Dick’s memorial service.

Present were Shauna Weeks, Reid Dick, Dawn Foster, Aaron Lenox and Civil. Kelly Emmons was on her way to Bradenton. Two other children, Edward Dick and Kevin Dick, have died.

The five agreed that Joanne Dick’s legacy continues in them.

“She would want us to be compassionate,” daughter Shauna Weeks said.

“And strong Christians,” Reid Dick said.

“Caring for other people no matter who they are,” Weeks added.

“And definitely to grow a heart for the community,” Civil said.

While at the hospital several days ago, Joanne Dick told her husband she wanted to go home. She died under hospice care.

“I think it was comfortable for all of us that it was quick and she didn’t linger and suffer,” Weeks said. “We all know that He was standing there with open arms waiting for her to come.”

Memorial gifts may be given to Guardian Angels of S.W. Florida, Palmetto Youth Center, Bradenton Christian Reformed Church or Tidewell Hospice.

Visitation will be held 3-6 p.m. Sunday at Brown & Sons Funeral Home, 5624 26th St. W., Bradenton.

The memorial service is 7 p.m. Monday at Bradenton Christian Reformed Church, 4208 26th St. W., Bradenton.

Burial is for family only at Manasota Memorial Park on Tuesday.

This story was originally published March 30, 2017 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Manatee loses a woman with a big heart for the community."