Written by: Dianne Tiegel Kruse
Hello Deephers, My name is Dianne and I have been a “sister” since 1965. I would like to share with you a beautiful, amazing, feel good, true story that happened during the Covid Pandemic. I hope it warms your heart as it has ours. And hopefully will put a smile on some faces.
I, and all the others I am about to tell you about attended Rider College from 1965 to 1969. We were lucky to have joined a sorority called Delta Phi Epsilon, better known as DPhiE. The “sisters” are called Deephers. It was an amazing time and our memories run deep. Through the years most of us have lost touch, but once a Deepher always a Deepher!!
During the Pandemic when Seniors were advised to stay at home, we were all truly hesitant to go anywhere. We were very careful and stayed as close to home as possible, binge watching movies but getting more and more bored while trying to stay busy.
One day in April, 2020, I got an unexpected phone call from one of my sorority sisters, (my Big Sister coincidentally!) Barbara. Stunned but thrilled we talked as if we had seen each other yesterday – a warm and fuzzy feeling. Barbara asked if I would be interested in being a part of a Deepher Zoom!! I was so excited and of course said yes! Barbara and two other sisters, Denise and Linda were the ones who came up with the Zoom idea. A date was discussed and the planning had begun. Over 50 years had passed and now we were going to reconnect!! Thoughts went through my head…would we recognize each other? How would we all react…would D Phi E be remembered with all the great times we had? I was soooo excited.
I decided to look for a box that I had kept of sorority photos. I found the box of photos and began to look through them. I truly took a walk down Memory Lane. It turns out that several other sisters also kept photos and soon we were able to share what we had found.
The day arrived in early May, 2020. Here we were, 52 years later on a sorority Zoom face to face with old friends, sisters, all because of a tragedy called Covid 19. The Zoom began with 5 sisters and now we are up to 18! How lucky we are!! And we are from all over the country…New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Florida, Texas, and California. Our Zoom meetings are every Wednesday at 5:00 and we all look forward to being together, seeing each other, talking and laughing, remembering things from so long ago…as if it was last week!! We are even trying to plan an in person reunion once the Covid is done and life goes back to “normal”.
So that is our story…a story of renewed old friendships…”sisters” remembering and sharing stories of great times from so long ago. Hopefully the Pandemic and its variants will be over soon but our DPhiE Zoom will continue for many more years. Thank you for reading our story. We can’t thank the Pandemic because it is so awful, but we are all very grateful that through the dim tunnel of sadness came 18 happy girls who will remain “sisters” forever.
We would like to dedicate this story to the memories of Karen Lippmann and Trudy Resnick, sisters who will live forever in our hearts.
Sisters who are reconnecting: Dianne Tiegel Kruse, Denise Alboum Abramson, Maria Feinhals, Barbara Sirkin Geller, Arlene Kramer, Rita Storfer Krovonet, Collette Guttman Kupferberg, Randy Pick Lazarus, Barbara Salk Miller, Linda Suval Moskowitz, JoAnne Frame Petruzel, Susan Rudolph Rabinowitz Jane Borkon Rudnick, Phyllis Berman Saletan, Karen Phillips Suvalle, Melody Nabson Taylor, Donna Wald, Candy Gold, Maria Feinhals, Randy Pick Lazarus, and Barbara Sirkin Geller