Dear Suzanne and Macc,
Dorothy McCully and Dorothy Banks were born in the same year, 1918, in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. As young girls, they became close friends, referring to themselves as the ‘Two Dots’ and their friendship spanned 70 years. When I was growing up, I heard the names Parky, Macc, and Suzanne in connection with my mother’s great friend Dorothy Parkinson. After they had both retired, the Two Dots continued to see each other every few years. I remember picking them up at the airport in Toronto after they had had a brief getaway together in Chicago in 1989. My mother, Dorothy Banks Hughes was stopping in Toronto to visit me, her youngest daughter, Mercedes, and my husband before returning home to Montreal. I believe Dorothy McCully Parkinson was meeting another friend and then driving on to Ottawa before returning home to Victoria. The Two Dots sat in the back seat of the car giggling, laughing, and chattering away together like two young girls. My husband and I were both struck by the sparkle in their eyes and their juvenescence. In the fall of 1994, my mother sensed that she was ill but she was determined to visit her dear friend Dorothy Parkinson in Victoria. While she was there, she tripped on the front steps of Dorothy P’s house and had to have a few stitches. I believe it was you, Macc who took her to emergency. Shortly after her return from Victoria, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. But she had had a last hoorah with her dear friend and their being together gave her a sense of peace and acceptance. She died in January of 1995 and I still remember the letter of condolence that we received from your mother. It was signed, ‘The Other Dot.’
Please accept our sincerest condolences,
From the children of one Dot, Carlton and Mercedes to the children of the other Dot, Macc and Suzanne
