On Thursday, Feb. 23, West Seattle lost a loved one and a special friend to thousands of people. Dorothy M. Poplawski, better known in the community as "Mrs. Dorothy," passed away from natural causes at Harborview Medical Center. She was 81.

For her memorial service Feb. 27, an estimated 70 people had filled the Hiawatha Community Center by 2 p.m. to pay their final respects to a woman who spent her entire life in West Seattle as a student, teacher and volunteer. By 3:30 p.m. dozens more had arrived.

Several people spoke out in remembrance, sharing their favorite memories of Mrs. Dorothy.

John Hermann, who served 26 years as the Hiawatha coordinator, reminisced about the Christmas parties she threw in the Hiawatha ballroom. Her cousins Beatrice Katola and Marjorie Laundry shared memories of family picnics at the Vashon Island brick yard. Former daughter-in-law Eileen Clark-Hahn remembered a time when Mrs. Dorothy was injured, so she gave a tap dance lesson to students while sitting down in a chair.

"I've never known anybody quite like her," said Clark-Hahn, who was previously married to Tom Poplawski, Mrs. Dorothy's son and first of her two children. "I think she is West Seattle."

Mrs. Dorothy, who graduated from West Seattle High School in 1942, worked as a stenographer for Seattle Hardware for a short time. For the next 60 years she served as a tap dance instructor, preschool teacher and volunteer.

She was the West Seattle High historian for 25 years, and remained very active in the community, both at the community senior center and the Hiawatha. In 1991 she won the Orville Rummel Award for Community Service. She spent a combined 35 years at Hiawatha as a student and dance instructor. For 37 consecutive years she put on the Hiawatha Spring Dance Show, her final show being "Flight 2003" in June 2003.

Mrs. Dorothy worked countless hours as a volunteer at Hiawatha.

"She never had a down day in her complete life," said Jean Carroll, Mrs. Dorothy's friend since 1944 and fellow West Seattle High grad and co-worker at Seattle Hardware. "Her glass was always half-full."

Mrs. Dorothy married Nick Poplawski in 1950 and they had two children, Tom and Suzi. Nick died from cancer in 1952 when Tom was only 18 months old and Dorothy was pregnant with Suzi. Mrs. Dorothy never remarried. When anyone ever asked her if she was going to start dating again, she told them no.

"She believed angels watched over her," Clark-Hahn said. "She felt like her husband was taking care of her. Nick Poplawski was her one and only love."

Mrs. Dorothy raised both Tom and Suzi as a single mother and saved enough money to purchase a three-story house, which became a haven for animals. She owned several dogs over the years. At the time of her passing, Mrs. Dorothy's house was the home to two dogs, a cat, two box turtles and a big container of stick bugs.

"She loved animals," said Clark-Hahn. "If you had any kids around Dorothy, her house was this magical kingdom of strange animals, and the kids loved her."

The house was known for accumulating a plethora of gifts and other random items from visitors over the years.

"Anybody who went to her house and left anything there, please go back and get it," joked Tom, drawing a collective chuckle from the crowd.

Mrs. Dorothy's other love was writing poetry. In 2002, she won an International Poet of Merit Award. In 1999 she wrote a poem titled "The Song of Hiawatha" to commemorate the Hiawatha's history. When Suzi's Australian shepherd dog Bernie died, Mrs. Dorothy wrote her daughter a poem, speaking as Bernie in the first person. The first and final stanzas read:

"My forever friend, I know that it must be different, now that I'm no longer there. I realize how much I was loved, and how all of you did care. I'll remember you my family and how much you meant to me. So please don't you grieve and don't be sad, it was just my time to leave."

Mrs. Dorothy left behind many valuable lessons for her two kids. The best lesson Tom said he ever learned from his mother was not to be afraid to participate. The advice Suzi remembers the most is that a "please, thank you, and a smile will take you far."

The same poem Mrs. Dorothy wrote for Suzi applies to her own life as well. She was loved. Things will be different, now. But it was just her time to leave.

"She always put her trust in her angels," said Clark-Hahn. "She wanted them to decide when she was going to go."

"She was the heart and soul of this community," said Hermann. "She's going to be missed."

Jeff Brown is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.