Ann's memorial included a slideshow with music in the background by Sarah Jarosz. Our Hope Mountain Blues Band used to sing this song. We had so much fun making music together.
I am re-posting part 2 of my original post from November of 2022.
...I was waylaid by RSV, which has taken me more than three weeks to recover from, but I would still like to share more memories of my friend Ann Wimberley.
I must confess to copying some photos from Neil's Facebook page as some events I did not have any documentation of. The one below was taken on one of the snowshoe hikes in the area of Ross Creek Cedars in Montana. This was part of the Wolverine Research Project.
Jon and Neil are hanging up part of a dead beaver, which was used to lure the wolverines. They also set up a game camera to take photos of the wolverine when it tried to reach the beaver.
I know that Jon said it was a very strenuous hike into the the spot where they were to set it all up and of course, Ann was with them and took the photo. I remember that they left here around 3:00 a.m. on a cold February day to begin the drive so that they would have time to get there and hike in and out before dark. Brrr.
This photo is of Ann receiving the Friend of Scotchman Peak's "Old Goat"Award, from Phil Hough. As I mentioned in my first post, Ann was the editor of their newsletter, The Peak Experience, for at least ten years.
In 2005 Hurricane Katrina caused major destruction in New Orleans. Ann and Neil volunteered to work with the doctors there to help those in need of medical assistance. They left their home here in Idaho and were there for six weeks.
The photo below was taken while they were there.
I would be remiss if I didn't talk about Ann's work for NAMI, the National Alliance for Mental Illness. She was most instrumental in setting up the first CIT, Crisis Intervention Training, in Bonner County, working with NAMI and multiple law enforcement agencies. I know this because I typed and put together the syllabus for the 40 hour course. She worked tirelessly to make it all happen. Here's a link to an article in the Daily Bee in 2009. It doesn't mention Ann, but she's one of the people who made it happen.
There would be many fundraisers to support continuing training sessions in the years that followed. One of them that Ann coordinated was, "Take A Seat At the Table". There was a dinner, live music, and a silent auction.
The main auction consisted of chairs of all kinds that were painted and donated by students from various schools in the county and other local organizations. There were dozens of chairs, all very creative, and too many to post here.
Some of our favorite memories were from a trip we took with Ann and Neil to visit their "old home" in Alabama. This photo is of the "River House", one of Ann's favorite places besides Hope.
Neil getting ready to head out in their boat. We went fishing in Mobile Bay and yes, we caught fish.
We are enjoying our fish dinner here with son, Mathew. He was the chef that night.
We traveled further north to visit Ann's brother Charlie, first at his business and then at his farm. He had a huge pond filled with fish and we watched him as he fed them with his automatic feeder. It was impressive.
I think we met almost all of the relatives and many of their friends on our travels which took us through not only Alabama, but Mississippi, Florida and Louisiana. We saw many historic landmarks and really enjoyed learning the history of the area as neither one of us had ever been anywhere in the south.
In this photo we are at Ann's brother's house on Navarre Beach in Florida. Tommy and his wife, Dixie introduced us to the beach. Jon got a really bad sunburn on the top of his feet. He had forgotten to put any sun lotion on them as he is not a sandals type of guy.
We scheduled our visit so that we could go to Jazz Fest in New Orleans. We spent the afternoon there and totally wore out Jon. Great food and music! (It was hot)
Here we are enjoying one of Ann's favorite foods, besides fresh oysters, beignets. (Ann could down a dozen oysters on the half shell in under 5 minutes)
I will agree that they are pretty tasty.
On our last night in New Orleans before flying home, we ate at the finest restaurant in the city, Commander's Palace.
It was a pretty fancy place for two old people who were "off the mountain" and out of their element.
What a treat!
They were all such lovely times. How fortunate we are that they moved from Mobile to Hope.
This quote on my blog page says it all.
Old Friends
"Yes'm old friends is always best,'less you can catch a new one that's fit to make an old one out of." (~Sarah Orne Jewett, 1896, The Country of the Pointed Firs; Ch.12)
No comments:
Post a Comment