Valerie Dyer Riddle, 64, died at Eastern Maine Medical in Bangor after a brief illness. She is the Daughter of Berle O'Neil and mother of Bobby and Brent and sister to Joe (Skipper) Dyer and Everett O'Neil and grandmother to Dakota and Corianne. She was predeceased by brother Alden Dyer.
Note from Joanne McCullum Anderson:
There are some people whose passing hits harder than others.. Valerie is one. She was my best friend growing up in the cove. We were inseparable and I attribute my emotional attachment to the islanders because of my years with Val, Alden and Skip, all the lobstermen in our cove, Joe, Hen, Bob, Pete, Ken, Cal, Manley, Dick, Silas and Albion………….They all watched us. We were urchins, digging for clams, turning rocks over looking for crabs, playing in the old cars on the banking, picking berries, rowing anything that would float, making rafts out of old crusty line and driftwood, hanging out with Betty and Mable as they steamed huge pots of crabs and banged on boards all day, they would give us the sweetest little pieces they could find! We never were at a loss at finding wonderful things to do.
Each day we had to take a nap and we would lay on Valerie’s bed and stare out the window for an hour. We dreamed of what it would be like to be rich and be on Hope Island, we knew that we could swim to Sand Island, we watched as each boat came back to the cove, with seagulls flying above and wanted to be onboard.
I am just overwhelmed with such rich and vivid memories. I am so glad that I have the memories!
