By Dyan Lane
It was the summer of 2000. The year I felt invincible. I had no fear and honestly felt like I had life by the “you know what.” What is it about graduating high school that makes us feel full of life and hope? I was headed to college with a full-time scholarship and a guaranteed job with the police department in four years. I felt free. Ready to make an impact on the world and leave a lasting imprint when I someday died.
It was that same summer that I met DeAnna Sullivan (aka Sickler). Looking back at it now, there is not a single shred of doubt that was the beginning page of an entering an entirely different life than my 18-year-old self had written. DeAnna had just recently obtained her real estate license and was herself on the very beginning of her own new journey. A journey I got to witness from the beginning.
As our friendship grew I quickly recognized her work ethic and tenacity. A client recently called her the ‘bull dog who wears lipstick.’ She was and still is the type of person that won’t quit until every aspect of a potential answer has been thoroughly examined. DeAnna is the one you want on your side when you feel stuck, when that property just seems like a tough sale, when you have found your dream home but don’t think you can “make it work.” She is the agent that will find a way… if a way exists. For the last 20 years I have been able to watch “the magic.” And now for a note to my friend. Happy 20 years of Real Estate and 20 years of friendship.
Dee –
How can it be? I have officially known you two years longer than I have not known you. Over the past 20 years I have had a front row seat to the type of person you are, in every aspect of your life and when no one is looking. Every day may not have been unicorns and rainbows but there sure was a lot of coffee and even more laughs to make up for the poop sandwiches.
Over the last two decades I have watched you build a successful business, build two beautiful homes, move four times, become a wife, balance having your husband work in another county for more than five years and also birth a child on two different occasions. I have known you through financial blessings and financial heartache. I have seen who you are when you’re at the top of life and the person you are when life deals you an unfair hand. I have witnessed you rise to the occasion of being the Sheriff’s wife (something neither of you planned) as well as to the tough calling of raising two tenacious and spirited boys.
How would I describe a person I have seen through 20 years of life; a life where members of each of our families have died, gotten very sick, gone through relationship struggles, and countless other moments where you could feel the earth shake below us? I will tell you: COURAGEOUS, STUBBORN, GRACEFUL, SPIRITED, CLASSY, ADMIRED, KIND, GENEROUS, GIVING, LOVING, TENACIOUS, SMART, BELIEVER, FAITHFUL, TRUSTWORTHY, RESPECTED, ADMIRED, ADVISOR, FUNNY AND MOST IMPORTANTLY LOVED.
I pray many blessings over you and then next 20 years of whatever this life might throw your way. I can’t promise you much on the 20 year birthday. But I can sincerely promise I will always be here. -Dy
PS. You’re looking pretty dang fine for 20 :)
