Our departed classmate Dana Elizabeth Belbey

by Pamela Altman-Brown

I met Dana Belbey my freshman year.  She was in my homeroom right there with the Berkfelds and Carla Belsky, etc., so it was no big stretch that we became fast friends.  I quickly learned that she was one of seven kids.  Jay, who went to Catholic school and was a few years older, Noel, Melissa, Michael, Jeffrey and John. Her dad was a pilot.  I thought that was so romantic.  He flew planes.  Can you imagine?   

They lived by the AB Smith School and my mother thought that was so convenient since I walked the mile to high school with Kathy Alcorn, Sue Brush and Cheryl Zimmer down Ruckman road every day.  I hung out at Dana's house a lot.  So many kids, so much going on.  I loved Sunday mornings the best.  They went to church and I baby sat.  Mrs. Belbey made breakfast with something I had never eaten – pork roll.  As Rachel Ray says, "YUMO".  What a blast.  Mrs. Belbey drove a white Falcon and chauffeured us everywhere -- skating, dances, whatever.  Dana and I would talk on the phone for hours – make-up, hair-dos, and boys, boys, boys.  Dana was always popular with boys -- cute as a button with a smile that never ended, and so bubbly.  She knew from a very young age, that like her father, she wanted to work for he airlines.  Never a doubt for her.  Dana had way more boyfriends that I ever did, including a guy who was her brother Jay's age and went to college at UVM with him.  He was a funny guy.   

Dana was part of the Monday night seminar crowd with Shazi and she could always get her mother's falcon so she drove a lot.  Shaz rode shot gun, it was a given.  I don't think I ever sat in the front seat of a car if Shazi was with us. Who cared?  Speaking of that, Dana and Shaz were cheerleaders for the CYO, and of course, me, the Jewish girl had to be one as well.  Mrs. Belbey and Mother Jaeger, as I called Shazi's mom, laughed loudly over that one.  But they both thought it was A GREAT IDEA.  What good friends I had.  But then she started dating Peter Markert, PVRHS class of 64 and our phone conversation changed.  We still laughed and laughed, but Dana was in love and I think so was Peter. They were such a good-looking couple and so much fun to be with.   

After high school Dana became a "key punch" operator fulfilling her wish to work for the airlines.  When I came home from college we still gabbed on the phone and got together, and of course, Peter was always around.  Soon came the news.  A wedding and she asked me to be the Maid of Honor.  I don’t remember the dress but I know the shoes matched and it was the first time I was in a wedding at a big Catholic Church. What a blast.  Peter went off to Viet Nam and she wrote letters constantly.  Then thank God he came home and they decided to move to San Diego, California – to the end of the earth.  But I traveled a bit for work as a fashion editor at GQ and so I got to see them and stay at their house in the foothills of San Diego.  It was so much fun.  

Time passed and they were parents. I went in another direction and next thing I know Dana like Sue Jefferies and I had a breast cancer.  Once again, I was devastated.  But Dana was a fighter and she fought the good fight as long as she could, and she had Peter by her side, always.  Dana got her wish to spend her last days at home with hospice care and she was very well cared for, and again, I love her and miss her still.  As I think of this I don’t think I ever eat a pork roll (so New Jersey and so Jersey shore for me) without thinking of my life with the Belbey's and all those laughs.  And I don't think I'll ever get over that white Falcon.