Tribute to an Old Fart, June 16, 2008
19 years ago, I moved to Lebec with two pet Briards. I didn't know anyone at all up here. I'm not the social sort at all, so I didn't go looking for new friends. One day, I was in my yard whacking weeds, and this older lady came out her back door, crossed the street to my back yard, and looking at a book in her hands, said "according to this book, those are Briards you have". The book was the AKC Book of Dogs, and the lady was Wilma Awana. She introduced herself, and told me she showed and bred Silkies under the Franmas kennel name. Before she went inside, I had an invitation to dinner, and knew I had really lucked out with a new friend. She and Francis defined "neighbor" to start, and "friend" to the finish.
Wilma persuaded me to get a show quality Briard for my next dog, and went to LAX with me to pick up Howie. She introduced me to the world of shows and show dogs. We'd load up a van, hers or mine, with Silkies and a Briard or two, and trundle off to a show. Francis would set us up, and spend the day happy sitting in his chair, with friends coming to say hello. Wilma would groom and show, and I'd do the heavy lifting and loading. We spent many happy days at shows together! But it was so much more. We went to classes together, she got me into the local kennel club, and would care for my dogs when I had to travel. Wilma was there when I whelped my first litter, finished my first champion, lost my old girls. I was there when she whelped her last litter and finished her last champion, when Francis got hard of hearing and went to shows less and less, when they needed evacuation from the fires, when driving to town got a little hard and a ride was appreciated. Dogs were the center of our friendship, but it went so much farther. She helped me through health issues, and when Francis was diagnosed with Alzheimers I listened as she coped. I was thrilled to call her from ringside when one of her breeding got a group placement, and when I was watching her grandaughter in group at Westminster. I cried with her at a death in the family, and made sure she got on the plane safely. She listened when I needed to vent, and always understood why I preferred dogs to people. My dogs adored both her and Francis, and Sassy still thinks Silkies are the best friends a Briard can have. Until the day he died, Howie thought he had three owners, not one.
Wilma always called herself an old fart. The year Santa Barbara shows were at the polo grounds and everyone had to use a shuttle, she was tickled pink that her handicap tag got us parking up front. "Us old farts are good for something", she'd say. We'd go to a show without tickets, and she'd say, let me go do the old fart thing, and sure enough, she'd come back with tickets. When she had to start using a walker, she'd play it for all it was worth in getting the ringside location she wanted, and having a built in seat. With friends showing for her, there were Champions after she couldn't do it herself any more. But the number of Silkies in her house started to drop, and it got harder and harder for her to go to the shows she loved, and Francis couldn't be left alone.
Silkies were the right breed for Wilma, because she was STUBBORN! You weren't going to budge her once she made up her mind. Right or wrong, that was it. She decided to move to Bakersfield, and put her house on the market the same day. She knew when it was time to let Francis go, after over 50 years of marriage, and was there for him for every breath at the end. After he was gone, I think she started to die too. Wilma and Francis were one person, one soul, WilmaandFrancis. Suddenly, it was Wilma and... - silence.
I got to see Wilma one more time after she moved to Colorado with her daughter last year. The move was a good thing, she got back into the dog world, to occasional shows and classes. But seeing her this spring was so hard - the friend who had started me on this road was going, and there was no stopping it. Her vocal cords were paralyzed, and for Wilma, that took so much joy from her life. She did love to talk, on any subject and at any time. And now she couldn't even communicate by phone with those she left behind in CA.
The old fart was buried today, back together, WilmaandFrancis. I'm not a believer in organized religion, I don't know that I believe in goD. But I do know that they are together somewhere, with all the Silkies they loved and bred. I know that when I lose Sassy, she'll be fine until I come, because she'll be with Wilma and Francis and her Silkie friends, having a blast. And I know I am so much more because I knew them all, Wilma and Francis and their Silkies. But today, I just want to cry.
