HANOVER — Listening was just one example of how Melissa “Missie” Barrett Dodds made the people around her feel special.
“(She made you feel) like you were the most important person in the world when you were talking with her,” her husband, Dick Dodds, said.
That feeling and the love Missie Dodds bestowed on others included everyone who crossed her path, whether at the ice rink, Lyme Road Dental, or just about anywhere else.
“She was inclusive of everybody,” Dick Dodds said. “She made sure everybody felt comfortable, welcome, and part of the gang.”
Missie Dodds died at 61 on Nov. 6 after she battled appendiceal cancer for nearly a decade.
Born to Charles and Laura Barrett on July 8, 1964, in Hanover, Missie Dodds, who was the youngest of five children, was “a very sweet little girl,” her older sister, Patricia Pollard, said.
Pollard, who is 19 years older than Missie Dodds, acknowledged that Missie was more like a child to her than a younger sister, and they spent a lot of time together.
“She just was that kind of child that’s just well-behaved, never gave anybody any problems, was well-liked, had a lot of friends, was very active in school,” Pollard said.
Dodds was also an athlete, playing field hockey and running track for Lebanon High School.
She was working as a waitress at The Village Green in Hanover before graduating from Lebanon High in 1982, when she met the man who would become her husband.
Dick Dodds, who was in college at the time, worked as a bartender at 5 Olde Nugget Alley in Hanover.
“They were owned by the same person, so she would have to bring — at the end of her shift at night — she’d have to bring her cash box down to me at the bar,” Dick Dodds said.
In 1984, Missie and Dick Dodds were paired up as a bridesmaid and a groomsman in his brother’s wedding, but at the time, Missie was living in Keene.
In May 1985, when Dick heard that Missie returned to the area, he called and asked her out on a date.
“From that day on, we saw each other every day ’til Nov. 6 …. It was a real love story,” Dick Dodds said.
The pair were married on May 3, 1986, and had their first son, Trevor, in December 1987. The couple also had two other sons, Patrick and Alex.
“She was an unbelievable wife,” Dick Dodds said. “She loved being a mother, she loved being a wife.”
As a wife and mother, Missie Dodds’ support of her family stood out, especially on the ice, whether she attended games Dick Dodds, a hockey coach for over 40 years, coached or games her sons played in.
“A lot of my favorite memories are sitting in the back of her van, driving from rink to rink, spending that time with her, and then looking up, when I was the one who was playing, looking up, and she was the constant in the stands,” Trevor Dodds said.
“To this day, I don’t know how she got to the six different places she needed to be at once, but I can’t remember her missing any of my events. I think Patrick and Alex say the same thing,” he added.
That support for her family didn’t stop at sports, Trevor Dodds said.
“That’s what she was like in all aspects of life,” he said. “She was that at the rink, but she was that for us in the classroom, she was that for us as we navigated life and adulthood and different challenges we all had.”
In her career, Missie Dodds was “all business,” but also fun, her husband said. She spent over 35 years at Lyme Road Dental in Hanover, and worked her way up to practice manager.
“She absolutely loved her work,” Dick Dodds said. “She considered her staff at Lyme Road Dental as her second family.”
“We all knew her, loved her…were supported and guided by her. We are better people for having had her in our life,” the practice posted to Facebook in the days after her death.
Her obituary shares that, “Every computer monitor in the practice has a sticky note that reads, WWMD? – ‘What would Missie do?'”
“She always went the extra mile for anyone that walked in the door,” said Ella Chapman, partner of Alex Dodds. “Whether it be new staff or a patient coming in for extensive procedures or regular cleanings.”
Dodds also was deeply involved in her community, whether teaching Sunday school, volunteering at school events, or serving on the Lebanon Little League board. She also contributed to fundraisers such as the Prouty and was a big supporter of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
When she had some time to relax, Dodds loved to walk, though Chapman described her walks as a run for anyone else.
Hiking, spending time with her family and golden retrievers, playing (and more often than not, winning) board games, shopping, traveling and attending Kenny Chesney concerts in Foxboro, Mass., were also activities Dodds enjoyed.
“She loved making memories,” said Tati Dodds, partner of Patrick Dodds. “That was one of the many things that she would always say, let’s build traditions, let’s make memories.”
Missie Dodds’ strength and selflessness became especially apparent as she ”kicked cancer’s ass,” as Dick Dodds describes it, after learning at 52 that she had the terminal illness.
“Her cancer doesn’t define her,” said Alex Dodds. “But the way that she fought cancer was simply incredible — you would have never known that she was fighting cancer.”
Alex Dodds said that was because his mother never made anything about her or took attention away from things her family was doing.
“When it was maybe getting hard, it wasn’t about how is she feeling, how is she fighting cancer, it’s ‘Hey, how are you guys doing with my fight with cancer? How is it affecting you?’” Alex Dodds said.
Pollard echoed this sentiment, sharing a story from a couple of weeks before her sister’s death.
“I was sitting with her, and she looked at me and goes, ‘How are you?’ and I’m like I’m OK, and she closed her eyes, and two minutes later she said, ‘Are you sure?’ ” Pollard said. “That was her.”
In her final month at home, Missie Dodds was surrounded by family, and in her final week, they told stories, watched old family movies and exchanged smiles and laughs.
“The ending was really, really tough, sad, hard, but it was unbelievably loving as well,” Dick Dodds said. “I think she got a lot out of that.”
After her death, the family held a celebration of life on Nov. 15 at the Hanover Inn, and one theme was central from those who paid their respects.
“A number of folks that came to her celebration of life and the number of condolence cards that I received was staggering, and the common theme amongst a lot of them was ‘Missie Dodds was my second mother,’” Dick Dodds said.
“So many kids and friends of my three boys all either verbally said that or wrote it in their condolence notes, and it’s true, and I know that’s something that would have made her really proud and really happy.”