Not Just a VIP
Dear Tom,
Don and I went with Ann to a lecture on Wednesday night, had pizza on Thursday night and waved goodbye to her Friday afternoon as she went into the CNM office to say goodbye to staff. We were on our way to be with family in SLC and she was on her way home to you. I couldn’t believe on Monday that she had become ill so quickly over the week-end and was in the hospital. I called the hospital to see how she was doing. She talked to me and told me what had happened to her and I realized the seriousness of what she was facing. She asked about my visit with the Great grandkids and told me at the end of the call that she was so glad that I had called. Those few moments in time are treasures to me now as I try to come to terms with how quickly she passed away. Our prayers and thoughts were with her the rest of Monday and on Tuesday….and then suddenly, shockingly she was gone.
Ah, Tom, she is so proud of the memorial you, the family and friends have set up for her as well as taking care of Cedar’s needs. I say she is because I believe she knows and is helping you through this time. She talked about your music, work with the environment and your school kids. She felt like this was good for you since she was away during the week. I hope you can go back to teaching as soon as you feel up to it….however, back off a little when you need it. Everyone doesn’t cry at first with grief. I feel that in some way that is Ann helping you through this time. I do remember feeling great times of comfort and strength coming from within me after my mother passed away. I came to feel this was my mom helping me through so the crying came much later for me. Ann is there for you and will be as long as you still need her.
She was a great friend to me at this stage in my life because she looked for and found the good and usefulness in everyone. At 76 you aren’t sure anybody thinks you are useful anymore but she definitely didn’t let me have this feeling around her. She always told me that a good mind shouldn’t be wasted and was on the lookout to keep me working as long as I could. And work we did for about 3 seasons at Dinosaur, packing, cataloging and moving books and materials from one building to another after the closure of the Quarry. She wouldn’t let me lift the heavy boxes of books and too often the park did not provide her with the help she needed to get the books moved. So she lifted box after box and carried them up and down steps so I could work with the books….I think some of those boxes weighed as much as she did….a tiny little dynamo in more ways than one.
When we finished what we could do with the library she convinced me to take on “cave duty” in the basement at HQ. This involved counting and documenting thousands of pieces of artifacts from a field collection that had not been counted accurately since they were collected back to the 30’s. As a result artifacts were included in the data base that was largely unaccounted for in the NPS collection. I did see the value in this and what we were doing because Ann believed what she was doing was best for the park.
This past month, she brought me to CNM to help finish their library by adding the rest of the library collection to Voyager….I did it for Ann….and wanted to see if I had one more library in me. I finished the job last week. I was just a VIP but Ann always made me and those around her who would accept it, feel like Very Important People. We miss her.
“I will revel in the sun until my time is nigh,
And when it comes,
I sail away just like a butterfly”
K.Antoniou
Love, Don and Alma Myers
