DeLazzer's spirit alive at Thanksgiving

Penny Goethe was almost done with preparing the Thanksgiving meal.

Twenty turkeys for 300 at Our Daily Bread soup kitchen. Cranberry sauce, green beans, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes and yams.

A lot of cooking for the first-year kitchen manager, her assistant and four volunteers.

Goethe had a little help from above, too.

She could hear Mary DeLazzer say, "It needs a little more garlic."

Goethe chuckled.

"Mary liked garlic on everything," she said, thinking of her late predecessor.

It’s something Goethe does daily.

Mary DeLazzer’s been gone almost a year, killed on her way to work at Our Daily Bread by a drunk driver early the morning of Nov. 28.

The day after Thanksgiving.

What a bittersweet anniversary.


Read more in Sunday's Mannix About Manatee