I hope I'm understanding you correctly. I've got a Stratosphere I, and on my screen when I push the power button to wake it up there's a lock icon, the time and date, and nothing else but the "Swipe screen to unlock" message. Behind that, I see a somewhat dimmed version of my wallpaper; no widgets, shortcuts, etc., at the bottom. Once I swipe to unlock it, 4 icons appear at the bottom of all of the 5 home screens: Phone, Contacts, Messaging, and Applications. These are the Primary Shortcuts (as the user manual calls them). Is something like that what your wife is seeing?
It is possible to replace or eliminate those primary shortcuts, except for the Applications one. From the Home screen, touch Applications, then press the Menu Key, then touch Edit. Now it gets a little tricky, but it's actually fairly easy once you have the concept. Touch and hold any application icon, then drag it down over one of the primary shortcuts and keep holding it. The primary shortcut will migrate up amongst the application icons. Still holding down on whatever app icon you were dragging, drag it back up among the app icons where it originally was. It will stay there, and the primary shortcut you were "replacing" will stay there too. Repeat for the other primary shortcuts. When you're finished, press the Menu Key, then touch Save. Go back to the Home screen, and you should be without the primary shortcuts. However, you will not be able to do this with the Applications/Home shortcut/icon itself, and that may well not be satisfactory.
I hope this is something close to what you were wanting to do. Of course, if she has a Strat II, things may be somewhat different.