Story & Photo by Joseph Boyle
The other day I was driving by Harold A. Allen Company located at 9805 Gravelly Lake Dr SW. I always look at the reader board sign. That day, I choked up and fought back tears as I read the message. Our friend Dena Hollowwa was gone.
There must be hundreds of you out there who knew Dena Hollowwa. If you ever had the pleasure of having Dena come into your life, I am certain you will agree that she was one of a kind and always a grand lady.
I first met Dena back in the early 1980’s at the beginning of my Real Estate career. I was new to the business and she was a well-known real estate veteran. I started out working tiny little houses. Dena had grown in the business so that she became a trusted and well-known go to person for helping clients buy or sell fancy upscale homes.
Ultimately the two of us ended up together at Harold A. Allen Company working for Hal Allen.
Dena and I did not have much in common when we first met, but as time went on we became good friends. When she started her own brokerage, Dena Hallowwa & Associates, I was one of her first Associate Brokers. We had a grand time working together.
I have run into hundreds of Lakewood citizens over the years that told me about doing business with Dena. They all speak lovingly of her. She was not just a businesswomen, she was a friend and a personality in the Real Estate business of rock star proportion.
Dena contributed greatly to our local Lakewood history with her loving term of ownership of the Madera Mansion.
Dena, you will be missed.
Nice tribute, Joe. Well said.