In Memory of Diane "Dee" Slowen
November 2, 1942 - September 12, 2024
November 2, 1942 - September 12, 2024
When she entered the room, Dee’s bright eyes and warm smile revealed her passion for helping others. Dee was easily approachable and deeply compassionate. She believed that all of her prior volunteer work led her to support members of the Café.
Dee was a Café Cook and taught a monthly School for Recovery class in 2022 titled “Fabulous Foods for Bodies and Minds” in the Café.
A busy volunteer devoted to providing healthy foods, she also cooked for the OUR Center, HOPE, and Mountain View Elementary School’s parent-teacher conferences. For the latter 17 years of her 40-year career as a Registered Dietitian, Dee worked for patients with chronic kidney disease. In that field, she helped many people struggling with alcohol use disorder. As a dietitian, Dee recalled that she solely addressed diets, not the person as a whole.
“When I came to Recovery Café, I thought, how perfect! Here, I am able to take a look at the whole picture, including lifestyle and trauma. In healthcare, I wish we looked at the whole person with unconditional, divine love as seen in the Café.”
“My experiences helped me to appreciate Recovery Café because I was very much aware of how important it is to have someone hear your story,” she said.
Dee was aware of how different substances impact appetite. With people in recovery, she placed the priority of care on supporting their general sense of well-being. She said, “They need regular access to meals if their bodies have been deprived of nutrients. Early recovery is a period of rebuilding brain and muscle cells.”
In Dee’s School for Recovery class, she looked at individual issues and challenges rather than prescribing a one-size-fits-all solution for the group as a whole, as food needs can be different in early versus long-term recovery.
Recovery Café Longmont recognizes the importance of a shared meal paired with compassionate conversation. As a Café Cook, Dee often provided a nutritious food selection for our shared meal times. She explained, “If you don’t have a family or someone to enjoy a meal with, you may not enjoy the food as much. It’s a proven social success. Meals on Wheels and the Center on Aging came to be because research shows seniors eat better if they have social support.”
In Dee’s memory, she asked for donations to be made to help build the new state-of-the-art kitchen at Recovery Café Longmont’s new building.
Recovery Café Longmont is deeply appreciative of the time, love, and passion Dee brought to our Community. We are so grateful to Dee for including us in her legacy.
“As a foodie, having had a lifelong career as a dietitian, and because of my love for volunteering at the Recovery Café, I can think of no better cause than the new kitchen at the new Recovery Café building as the mission I want to support and be remembered by.” – Dee Slowen