CT August 2026

BOX OF RAIN... from page 19.

charm. I also talked about her love for her family and for the Grateful Dead. I still think about Denise almost every day (thanks to a picture I have of me and her hanging in my office) and the many memories her daughter, Brittany, shares on Facebook. And I know others do as well. As I alluded to above, Denise’s most important contri bution to the chapter – and the community association industry – was that she was an incredible mentor to so many people: Miranda Lardieri, Melissa Lloyd, and Mary Grill, to name a few. Every time I see Mary or Miranda or Melissa at a CAI event or a board meeting, we always end up talking about Denise, what she would say about this or that, and how much we miss her. It’s been five years this month since Denise left us, and I can tell you, it does not get any easier as the days pass. So, let’s continue to tell stories and remember Denise and those other important men and women that came before her. Keep her name and those other names alive. And if you see me at an event, ask me to tell you about the Tumulty’s story I mentioned above. It’s a good one.

After we caught up at dinner, we made plans to catch a cab together to the airport the following morning before we went our separate ways. That was the last time I saw Denise.

“What do you want me to do, to do for you to see you through? A box of rain will ease the pain, and love will see you through”

Above everything, the thing I loved most about Denise are the memories outside of board meetings or CAI events. Oddly enough, many of those memories revolved around food: our many lunches at Old Man Rafferty’s in Hillsborough; her unusual infatuation with P.F. Chang’s soup; when I crashed her and Greg’s rehearsal dinner at Tumulty’s in New Brunswick, and when she took my kids to the Tiger’s Tale in Montgomery. In my last president’s column for the CAI-Keystone chap ter, I quoted Denise’s words above, and I wrote about her passion for our industry, her unmistakable kindness, and her

“And it’s just a box of rain, or a ribbon for your hair, Such a long, long time to be gone, and a short time to be there”

n

“...let’s continue to tell stories and remember Denise and those other important men and women that came before her.”

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AUGUST 2026