Diane Alper-Stanley

Diane was a truly gentle soul with a heart so huge and loving. She was also a loving and incredible mother to Sarah who was in my mind her life’s greatest gift and achievement! She and I shared our love of all things old, antique, dusty, sometimes valuable and sometimes not!! I spent many of my trips to Atlanta doing estate sales with her and our Mom and often went home with treasures to add to my own antique collections I still own today. My best memory of our shared love was how we discovered we were onto something was when our Great Aunt Mary passed away and left us drawers and drawers of vintage costume jewelry. In our usual crazy fashion we took it to a flea market to sell. Well , they were grabbing the pieces right and left and Diane and I looked at each other and thought “oh no” I think we might be selling something pretty valuable here way too cheap!! Lo and behold when we got home and looked up some of the pieces we wanted to kick ourselves around the block for not researching it better. Trust me….that never happened again for either Diane or I in our future antique business endeavors. I miss our conversations and shared love of all things old. I miss how much she loved my daughter Dana. There is a huge hole in my heart that will never be filled now that she is gone.

I will always remember the conversations I shared with Diane. Words are few ,memories are many. I treasure the time I had with her. Every time I hear Steve Miller I hear her singing along. She will be fondly remembered.

I used to visit my Aunt Diane every summer once I became old enough to fly. Visiting her house was like being unleashed in a treasure trove because, being in the antique business, she always had amazing knick-knacks and cool things to discover (I still remember the cover art for Frank Zappa’s “Weasels Ripped My Flesh”). She encouraged imagination with me and Sarah, be it playing “Bailey and Friends” or the notorious “Slaughterhouse Rock”. She let us watch all the cool horror movies. I remember her taking us to see the first “Scream” film when it came out, which Sarah and I became obsessed with and it wasn’t a little over a year later that she took us in our “Scream” t-shirts to Agnes Scott College, the filming location of “Scream 2”. She loved Blondie (her favorite band of all time), had lots of musical instruments in her house (I forced Sarah to play the “Gremlins” theme for me dozens of times) and was not secretive about her crush on Johnny Reznik from the Goo Goo Dolls. She even seemed genuinely interested when Sarah and I played her “Barbie Girl” when it first came out in 1998 (and tolerated us playing it dozens of times). Where I grew up, self-expression was not something that was encouraged by the people in town, and as a natural born artist my teenage years were pretty rocky. But not matter how bad things got, I always could look forward to the summer trips to Atlanta where I knew I would be in a place where none of my peculiarities (and there were many) were ever judged. Aunt Diane did not do judgmental. It was one of her graces. She may not have been an artist, but she understood what being one was like. That kind of thing goes a long way and is a memory of her that I carry with me today.

I met your family when Elaine moved next door to me in the townhouses in Roswell. Her heat had gone out and I went over to let her borrow a portable heater. I knew she had a dog named Kashi; so, I didn’t want Kashi to be cold – haha. Your mom was a lovely person both inside and out. She was also a darn good cook – loved her mac and cheese. I was lucky to meet both her and Gu and become part of your extended family. Diane will be forever alive in your love for your family and remember memories are immortal.

There are no words to write about my beautiful, wonderful sister. My best friend and my rock. I miss talking to her everyday. She listened to my daily work antics for 45 yrs, always supported me no matter what. I could tell her anything and everything without being judged. She just loved me for me. She is irreplaceable. She had a kind and compassionate heart and way about her. Anyone who ever met her loved her. I just can’t believe I have to live the rest of my life without her. My biggest sadness is for my beautiful niece Sarah. To lose her mother when she is young is heartbreaking to me. I try to help or support her but my grief is so huge I find myself turning to her for understanding and support. And my brother in law Garry is heartbroken too. Diane was one of a kind. I love her so much and will never be able to understand how and why she isn’t here anymore. I love you Diane and will miss until I take my last breath too.

We worked together and I considered Diane a friend. My 1st memory was working with her on an estate sale for a retired baker. He had over 70 years of recipe clippings in his basement. I was given the assignment of organizing the basement. It all looked like trash to me so I started putting all those recipes in trash bags. Diane came downstairs to check my progress and was horrified. She did the "home alone" face and screamed "No!" I had to place all those recipes in zip lock bags, enough to fill an entire bathroom, from floor to the mirrors. When the doors opened for the sale buyers were climbing over each other for those "pieces of paper." She knew the value of those scraps and taught me that what looked like trash, wasn't. We also went dumpster diving several times for treasures that family had thrown out. She was so happy to be with Sarah and the babes in Alabama. I and all the staff at Smooth Mooove greatly miss her smile, patience, compassion and great caring for others.

Sarah -- your mom was such a warm and inviting person. She always made me feel welcomed when we were in high school. And she loved you so dearly. Sending love to you and your family.

I will always miss you mom! I will carry your memory with me always.