Christ Community Covenant Church

Donna Stanley

One summer day not so long ago, Donna Stanley drove by and saw a sign that said, “My name is 4C’s. What’s your name?” That sign spoke to her heart and she decided to visit the church whose welcome greeting drew her in. Since that day 13 months ago, she has missed only three Sunday’s with her new church family – when we were closed due to weather conditions, to go on the Naomi Mission trip to New Mexico, and to attend the Covenant Women’s Retreat at Covenant Heights. Without a doubt, Donna has made Christ Community Covenant her new church home!

Donna Marie Dillinger Stanley was born to Harold and Annetta (Eriksen) Dillinger in Des Moines, Iowa on July 25, 1951. She had one older brother, Raymond, who was 7 years older than she. At the time of her birth, Donna’s father worked for an oil company as a “right of way” agent inspecting pipelines throughout Iowa for ruptures, and her mother was a homemaker. Harold was born in Missouri in1904 and he and his brother were raised by their mother after his father died when he was 12 in a railroad accident. She remarried much later and they had his half sister. Annetta was born here in 1921, one of 5 children of immigrants from Denmark. Raised on a farm in the Denver area, she didn't learn English until after she started school. The couple met and found they had much in common when they worked together at the Montgomery Wards store on South Broadway. Harold managed both the company soft ball team and the accounting department where Annetta worked. He couldn’t help but notice that she played softball very well and even helped their team win a state championship! To top it off, they were both Lutherans! Marriage was inevitable!

During Donna’s early years in Des Moines the family lived in a home on two thirds of an acre that boasted a large garden, many kinds of fruit trees, and large Elm trees where she spent many happy times on her rope swing. At school she developed an interest in music and took up the clarinet. But there were difficult issues to deal with as well. Donna was a “Daddie's girl”, but her father traveled a lot and she wasn’t able to spend as much time with him as she would have liked. It was an especially difficult time for her mother who had contracted Brucellosis (an infectious disease characterized by rising and lowering fever, sweating, muscle and joint pains and weakness) as a young woman while on her in-laws farm. She had the disease for 20 years before it was diagnosed and Donna recalls that she was always very thin and not in good health. But in March of 1960, at age nine, Donna recalls being told that her mother would die after being taken to the hospital suffering from the effects of the disease. Although Donna had prepared herself for that to happen, her mother survived after undergoing some radical medical treatments, and despite being advised to spend some time after hospitalization in a sanitarium, she came home.

Within a few months Donna’s father received a transfer to Sioux Falls. He and Annetta had begun remodeling their house but he had to leave for South Dakota in May and she had to complete the remodel without him. In August the rest of the family moved there as well, but by Christmas Donna’s mother had relapsed, fell into a coma, and was again hospitalized. Annetta would later tell her daughter that a near-death experience convinced her that she was not ready to leave her family behind, and once again she recovered and returned home. Donna continued with her music taking 1st place in the South Dakota Band Masters Association competition for her grade. She completed 5th grade during the year the family spent in Sioux Falls, but then Harold received another transfer – this time to Omaha.

In Omaha the Dillinger family was finally able to settle down. Donna turned eleven and got her first puppy – a Manchester terrier mix, the first of many dogs (and a few cats) she would have over the years. She continued to excel playing the clarinet in band and was very involved in all aspects of music during her school years. She played in the 4-H Band in Omaha from 6th grade through Junior in High School (their director was the director of the Boys Town band as well) and participated in parades throughout Nebraska. She was 1st chair from 7th grade through High School in the Junior Symphony Orchestra of Omaha and played 1st chair in her sophomore year in the All City Band in Omaha, (the first sophomore and first girl to every hold that position). She held 1st chair in her High School Band, Orchestra, and Pit Orchestra and she sang in the choir and a girl’s quartet as well. Only God knows why all of the involvement, though rewarding, burned her out and she walked away from music participation when High School ended.

Donna graduated from High school in Omaha, and like many young people of her generation she was not happy with life in general or the world around her. On January 1, 1970, angry and a little spoiled, she packed all her belonging in her car and moved to Denver where she took a job as a typist/billing clerk. The money was hardly enough to live on so she moved on to a position at Karman Western Wear where Donna became best friends with one of her co-workers, Richard (Dick) Stanley who was 16 years her senior. It was a friendship that would last 40 years. Each of them had separate lives - he was married and had three sons and Donna had married Robert Chambers in 1971 - but they enjoyed each other’s company at work. During that time she went back to school at Central Business College and got a degree in computer operations and learned to wire accounting boards. Her accounting knowledge would become her bread and butter and she used that expertise in a variety of positions.

In 1974 Donna’s marriage to Robert dissolved. Both she and Dick left Karman in 1978 after a change in upper management. He went to work for a concrete pumping company and then took a credit manager’s position at Seal Furniture and Systems, an office furniture and modular systems company that was Herman Miller’s largest dealer in the world at that time. One of their larger projects was to furnish 18 floors of the Mountain Bell building. She became a gold and silver bullion trader until 1980 when she discovered that she had cervical cancer. Donna was treated for the disease and not long after Dick brought her on board at Seal Furniture where she managed the accounting for 11 locations in Colorado and California for 11 years. Unfortunately, in 1985 the cervical cancer returned. Dick’s marriage had also ended, and it was he who came to her rescue. They had begun to see each other after his divorce, and it was Dick who took her into his home and cared for her during her recuperation. Donna lived with Dick and two of his sons until 1991 when they married at the Foothills Art Gallery. Neither of them had been in the church for many years.

Dick left the furniture company and worked in another position for a time, but his health had begun to deteriorate and he retired in 1993 at the age of 58. He became what Donna calls a “stay-at-home hubby” and did a lot of remodeling and gardening while Donna worked. Still the couple found time to enjoy their dogs and the outdoors together, spending many memorable days camping and enjoying the grandeur of the mountains. Donna had left Seal Furniture the year after they were married to work as controller for a banner company that had 8 locations. She stayed there for 15 years, and became good friends with the daughter of the owner of the company. But life changed in 2003 when Dick had a stroke that reduced his mental and physical capabilities. He worked hard at rehabilitation and regained about 90% of his abilities, but the stroke changed his personality leaving him somewhat withdrawn, quiet, and more of a homebody.

Dick and Donna were living in Lakewood, but in 2005 the couple decided to sell the house and downsize to a smaller one with less yard and maintenance for Dick to deal with. They found a perfect compact one level ranch in Arvada not far from 4C’s and settled into their new home. In 2006, shortly after their move, there was a staff turnover when the banner company was sold, so Donna moved on to a new position as the controller for the Dill and Dill (short for Dill, Dill, Carr, Stonbraker & Hutchings, P.C.) law firm where she stayed until 2015. However, in 2013 she was recruited by her former boss’s daughter to work on a part time basis from home for Title Company of Denver. It was an attractive proposition as Donna felt the pull to be at home more with her husband as his heath continued to fail. The plan was that she would gradually transition from full time work at the law firm to part time, and eventually to full time work out of her home. But then, on November 17, 2013, Dick passed away and Donna lost her best friend, true love, mentor and husband to prostate cancer. She recalls that Dick’s passing was the saddest day of her life. Bear, their wonderful, 140 pound, 14+ year old Great Pyranees mix died exactly 90 days later.

Donna now works from her home office as an Assistant Closer and licensed title insurance producer for Title Company of Denver where she researches properties before sale. Donna was unable to have children due to her bouts with cancer, but she feels blessed to have relationships with many of her three step children, six grandchildren, and four great grandchildren. She’s very involved with them and they get together often. When the occasion is a meal out there are usually four generations at the same table and she loves that! One of her three step sons, Paul, lives with her (along with a 14 year old black and white cocker mix named Falcore), and was a tremendous help when Dick became paralyzed from cancer. She believes he is there for a reason and continues to be a blessing to her. Donna’s one sibling, Raymond, lives in the Dallas area and has three sons, all of whom live in Texas as well.

Although Donna had been raised in the Augustana Synod of the Lutheran church, she had left that behind along with her music when she moved to Denver. After Dick’s passing she realized that there was something even more missing in her life. When she saw that 4C’s greeting on our sign she decided to give us a try, and her faithful attendance is evidence that the Lord had a new path for her to take.

Donna has found 4C’s to be so welcoming, and she believes the people here know how to love, serve, and help those around them more than any other group of people she has ever met. She loves the messages on Sunday morning and the extended family she has found here. When she started attending 4C’s Donna believed God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:11,“ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” She believed that was a covenant between her and the Lord and she vowed to be involved and find joy in doing God’s work. Donna has been true to that covenant and has connected with several areas of ministry at 4C’s including teaching Sunday School, working at Common Grounds, helping with “Open Hands”, our churches outreach to the hungry, and participating on the budget committee in addition to attending the recent Covenant Women’s Retreat and going on the Naomi Mission Trip. That verse has become her inspiration and marching orders and she is allowing God to mold her life every day in new ways.

Looking back Donna believes that she idolized her husband perhaps a bit too much, and yet understands that in many ways he was a gift. Donna comments, “He took a spoiled girl and taught me how to love unconditionally”. Now she is learning to love on a different plane. She was an angry young person but recalls that she always believed there was a God. She wasn’t sure about where Jesus fit in, but that has changed and her relationship with Him continues to grow every day.