Alvin-Omawata Hill (1972)
Obviously, I did not (could not) know all the members of my class (‘72). More than likely, dear reader, we are unfamiliar with each other. Still, I had my friends/associates, and my time at CVS helped to shape both my worldview and self-impressions.
Sadly, although not a statistical outlier - given that over 40 years have passed - the site shows that four classmates known to me have left this plane: Yolanda Roach was a dear friend, Michael Ward and I were on speaking terms, and I enjoyed Elizabeth Denise Pauls’ baked goods.
Dorothy West and I met about 25 years post-graduation, as a result of a very serious fix involving her son, Jeffery.
She wore her hair naturally at the time. Being a natural man, I gave her high-compliments. Dorothy replied, dryly, that while she liked the style, shortly after the birth of her first child, “My hair would curled so tight that it gave me migraines.” (Consequently, for a while she got her hair “did,” wore wigs, and otherwise presented, in my opinion, unnaturally.) We both cracked-up. And to this day I’m not sure that if she were just jesting.
During that difficult time we became friends.
Also, I got to know Jeffery’s father, a CVS alum, as well as his too sweet grandmothers. Humbly, I spoke on his (and my own) behalf at her “home-going” service. There, it touched me to see the many folks touched favorably by Dorothy.
With that said, today I was shocked to see that the “In Memory” page of the alum website is absent any acknowledgment that Dorothy West even existed!! And then I found that he memorial pages of too many former Cavilers - who are no more of this earth - are likewise blank. We can do better than that! In a 2002 book, Andy Rooney wrote: “The best thing we could do [for those] who die is make certain there is some written record of who they were and what they did.” Please share. Our class mates lived, loved, and are worth the time to be so acknowledged . . . .
Peace
Omawata (‘72)
|