Marvin D Loflin - To Sir, With Love -

I've written about my dear friend, Marv, several times in this blog: 

https://folkladysadventures.blogspot.com/2012/10/learningu.html 

https://folkladysadventures.blogspot.com/2019/02/one-year-later-annual-physical.html

https://folkladysadventures.blogspot.com/2016/06/closing-doors-to-clifford.html

https://folkladysadventures.blogspot.com/2015/08/of-barbecues-and-circuses.html

https://folkladysadventures.blogspot.com/2014/04/first-responders

html, https://folkladysadventures.blogspot.com/2014/04/first-responders.html

Marv passed away two weeks ago, and my heart has been hurting since I received the call. I feel like I've lost my father life-line. 

I have loved our conversations over the past 19 years; he has pushed me to think harder, expanded my vocabulary ("cogitate" was a favorite), added to my list of off-the-wall sayings (belly rubbing and navel gazing), and pushed me into being the most "competent" person I could be (and he often thanked me for this trait). Marv had faith in me, and he quickly shared this whenever we were together; he often said, "Don't doubt yourself; I don't doubt you." 

The song, "To Sir, With Love," has come to my mind multiple times when thinking of Marv - he really did see my potential, and he helped me soar. 

We quit officially working together about five years ago, yet there hasn't been a week go by that I haven't incorporated one or more of his teachings into my life - work and home. 

I called him Father's Day weekend, and he always answered with, "Ummhmm, well, hello Ronda Walker Weaver." We had a sweet conversation, and I told him, like I have tried to over the years, how much I love him, and how much I have appreciated his friendship. He will say, "And you to." I will miss hearing his voice. I will miss sitting next to him and carefully listening to his wisdom. 

Gratefully, his lovely wife, JoJean, is a gem and a friend, and Scott and I will be blessed by her love.

 

Idaho Skies - I Am -

I love the comfort I have found in living in and visiting the South. The warm (or bone-penetrating cold) humid air, the overdose of Oak, Walnut, Kudzu, wild-rose, the southern hug this brings to me, from the moment I step onto this fertile abundant ground. The South says, "There's a mystery around the bend, through the break in the trees; come, discover." 

The South will always have a piece of my heart. 

And yet - 

I love the raw and open fields of my South - Southeastern Idaho. The brilliant skies, the toiled to be fertile fields, the sagebrush, the scrub oak, the Lodge-pole pines, the constant breeze/wind of soil or snow. This Idaho says, "I have nothing to hide, what you see is what you get." 

I am my Idaho landscape.