Six months ago, I lost my mother and best friend. My mom was my rock, in every sense of the word. I am only just now able to see through the tears long enough to share her obituary publicly. I apologize for my delay.
Veronica (Ronnie) Dorothea Dickes was a spitfire, independent, and discerning woman who was lost to this world on August 26th 2022. After a year of being ravaged by lung cancer, she passed away at home in the loving embrace of her beloved dog, Daisy, and her daughter, Tiphanie.
Ronnie was perhaps the most interesting woman in the world. She lived a rich, worldly, and storied life. She spoke Japanese, French, and English fluently, and worked as a translator throughout her life. She was born to Sylvia Ellen (maiden name Walker) and Kenneth Claire Miller on August 8th, 1949. After being prisoners of war in World War II, the couple had just moved to Japan so Kenneth could work for Chase Manhattan Bank. They had their first son Douglas Claire Miller, in Shanghai, China, and they wanted to be sure Ronnie would have citizenship in a Western country. A very pregnant Sylvia travelled to Canada to live with her parents, who retired in Victoria B.C., and gave birth to her second child, her only daughter, and a Canadian citizen. Three months later, Sylvia and her new baby daughter flew back to Kobe, Japan, where Ronnie was reunited with her brother and father and she would live the first 18 years of her life.
Kenneth was a banking executive for Chase, and their lifestyle included a personal chef, two maids, and a driver. Ronnie and her older brother, Douglas, were primarily raised by their staff as their parents had a second job as business entertainers and were out several nights a week. Douglas never mastered Japanese like Ronnie did, and she was a fluent Japanese speaker throughout her life. She was obviously beautiful at an early age and she was objectified and abused as a child, the consequences of which would cast a shadow on the rest of her life. As she grew into a stunning blonde-haired and blue-eyed woman, she took on modeling and television gigs on the side. When she spoke fluent Japanese she often reveled in the shock on the faces of everyone in the room. Even as the cancer robbed her of her cognitive acumen near the end, she kept speaking Japanese.
She never settled down and her restless spirit was never satisfied for long. She went to Southern California and Hawaii for college. She proudly became the first college graduate in her family and earned a Bachelors degree in Anthropology, and an affinity for primate studies and Jane Goodall.
She lived a glamorous and worldly life bouncing between New York and London while she worked as a flight attendant for PanAm airlines. The actor Sean Connery hit on her while she was walking the streets of New York City. Ronnie spent seven years in Bahrain working for Hilton hotels in marketing and concierge services.
Ronnie moved to France after falling in love with the country on a vacation. At 38, she gave birth to the daughter she prayed for, a blonde haired, green-eyed girl she named Tiphanie Ellen. Ronnie and Tiphanie took on the world together and they were very close. A few years later, they left France to live with Ronnie’s parents in Issaquah/Sammamish, Washington. Ronnie worked odd jobs until she became an administrative assistant and focused on raising her daughter for five years before moving them to Peoria, Illinois. Eventually, this is where she met and married the love of her life, Lyle Dickes in 2004. After Tiphanie graduated high school, Ronnie and Lyle retired to the Hood Canal in Washington state. They lived happily in bliss for ten years until Lyle passed away after battling cancer in 2015.
Ronnie was devastated by Lyles death and the grieving process took its toll on her and her health. Nonetheless, embracing her fierce independence, a few years later, Ronnie and her dog, Daisy, would make her last cross-country move to Athens, Georgia. She lived across the street from her high-school-friend, Sally Turner, and the two lived as neighbors and best friends who got through the Covid-19 pandemic together.
Ronnie loved loud music, good red wine, whiskey on the rocks, Marlboro Red 100’s cigarettes (she DID quit when she was diagnosed with cancer), a good sense of humor, and a really hot bath. She was an incredible artist and creative; she crafted everything and mastered all the mediums from sculpture to quilting to knitting to jewelry-making. She was a talented chef who loved French and Japanese cooking and could best any restaurant any day. She was a staunch liberal, who found herself becoming more progressive than ever at the end of her life. She taught her daughter everything she knew, including the hard lessons she had learned from her incredibly interesting life. She made sure her daughter knew how unconditionally loved she was every single day. She emphasized her belief in the power of getting an education and she attended every one of Tiphanie’s graduation ceremonies (all three of them, all across the country), beaming with pride. She and her dog, Daisy, were inseparable. She had a lot of life left to live.
Daisy and Tiphanie live together now and are grieving and living everyday in Ronnie’s honor. Tiphanie plans to spread Ronnie’s ashes in the places that mattered to her the most, memorializing her life as a citizen of the world. Ronnie will forever be dearly missed.
Tiphanie Raffegeau, PhD 