Marge DeLizza came to Providence House in January 2000.
I had requested Volunteer Services send someone to bake cookies for the guests at the house,which was a home away from home for people who have to travel for treatment in Anchorage. Guests were from all over the world, taken from airplanes while ill, Alaskans who had been injured and medevaced to Anchorage, cancer patients, moms of babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Anyone who traveled to Anchorage for treatment at Providence Hospital and their families stayed there.
Marge made herself right at home in the kitchen, and before anyone knew it she was baking cookies for hours each Tuesday and Thursday. Marge had a way about her that fit right in. She was a little shy, always had a twinkle in her eye, a quiet demeanor and a great sense of humor. A cute, impish expression endeared her to all. The guests needed the caring homelike atmosphere and she definitely helped the house in that respect.
Many of the guests at the house returned for ongoing treatment through the years and would always ask, "Is Marge baking cookies still?"
More than the cookies, they loved Marge.
In 2007, in order to expand the Mother-Baby Unit at the hospital, Providence House was torn down and replaced with the Ermalee and Wally Hickel House elsewhere on the grounds. Marge moved to the new house and was honored for her dedication and caring with her own parking place, a space in front designated by the sign "COOKIE LADY."
Marge didn't tell the guests she had been a cancer patient before she came to volunteer at the house. She died June 22 after fighting the disease all these years off and on. Marge knew what the patients were experiencing. Helping them feel better by baking cookies and making the house smell like home gave her so much pleasure, not to mention what it did for the guests. We all loved the Cookie Lady.
Karel Atkinson opened Providence House in 1983 and was the director there for 20 years.
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