So Long Maggie, my friend.

My friend, Maggie Walker

 July 3, 2012

I just received news this morning that my good friend, Maggie Walker died.  I think she was quite ill and my hope is that she is in a much better place.

I met Maggie when I moved to Owyhee, NV to teach Family and Consumer Science in the combined school on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation.  Maggie had been my predecessor.  She was transferred to Carlin and I took her place.   As fellow FACS teachers we became close friends.  We traveled to conferences together and were room mates often.  When I was transferred to Wendover she took over my job back up in Owyhee.  We knew each others students and our two groups did lots of traveling, conferences and sight-seeing together.

  Maggie and I had a lot of good times with the other "Home Ec" teachers in Elko County.  We shared teaching resources and shared a lot of good laughs as well.  Our lives were similar in that we both had lived on ranches during our married lives and had children about the same ages.  We differed in that she grew up on an Indian Reservation and had lived most of her life there.  I loved hearing her stories about her young life.

Maggie is on top of the world

After I retired and moved back to Colorado we stayed in touch.  One summer she drove up to the cabin with two of her grand children.  We had a fun time including a scenic drive on the Trail Ridge Road which scared her to death!

Picnicing at Grand Lake Colorado with JJ's family and Maggie with her grand kids.  Maggie is second from the right.

 One of my memories of that time was when she tried to braid my grandson, Darcy's, light blond very fine hair.  It just kept falling out and we had to laugh when she said "You just don't have the right kind of Indian hair!" .  She finally got the job done but it didn't last long.

Finally they are done messing with my hair!

Darcy's braids didn't last too long!

 I lost track of Maggie when she retired and moved to Reno to be with her son but former students kept me informed of how she was doing.  I did not know that she had moved back to Elko and am sorry that I didn't get to see her one last time when we were in Elko in June.

So long Maggie!  I will miss you.